Jack Ellis (23 October 1912 – 27 November 2007) was an

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

international

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

player. At the time of his death it was reported that he was the oldest living England international rugby player, although it was later discovered this was incorrect.

Rugby career

He played in only one official England game a 9-6 win against Scotland during the 1938/39 season. Official international games were not played during the Second World War but he played in 10 Red Cross Service Internationals including a joint England/Wales team that beat a joint Scotland/Ireland team 17-3 in December 1939. He also played five times for the

Barbarians A barbarian (or savage) is someone who is perceived to be either uncivilized or primitive. The designation is usually applied as a generalization based on a popular stereotype; barbarians can be members of any nation judged by some to be les ...

and Yorkshire. At club level he played for

Wakefield RFC Wakefield RFC was an English rugby union club, founded in 1901 and folded in 2004 as a result of poor finances, with a trading loss of £105,000 for the season and unsecured creditors' loans of approximately £640,000. The club's final season w ...

making his debut during the 1931/32 season, playing 106 games and scoring 37 tries.

Career

He qualified in Classics at

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham *County Durham, an English county * Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States *Durham, North Carolina, a city in N ...

in 1936, also acquiring a Diploma in Physical Education at Carnegie College. He was a school teacher and he taught classics, Latin and Greek at Fettes in Edinburgh, Rossall in Lancashire and

Scarborough High School for Boys Graham School is a coeducational secondary school in the west of Scarborough in North Yorkshire, England. It is situated to the west of the town within of grounds. The school is on Woodlands Drive. The lower site on Lady Edith's Drive closed ...

. He was a major in the Royal Army Service Corps during the Second World War, being amongst the British troops who liberated Belsen in 1945.http://oldscarborians.org/summertimes/sumtimes2008-1.pdf

References

* Wakefield Rugby Football Club—1901–2001 A Centenary History. Written and compiled by David Ingall in 2001. * Observer newspaper 17 December 1939 Page 16

External links

RFU

BBC obituary
1912 births 2007 deaths Wakefield RFC players English rugby union players People from Rothwell, West Yorkshire Barbarian F.C. players England international rugby union players Rugby union players from Yorkshire Yorkshire County RFU players Rugby union scrum-halves {{england-rugbyunion-bio-stub