Emile Ernest Vere de Lissa (30 January 1871 - 16 August 1955) was an Australian-born rugby union

Rugby union

Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

 official who became the second president of the Barbarians

Barbarian F.C.

The Barbarian Football Club, usually referred to as the Barbarians and nicknamed the "Baa-Baas", is an invitational rugby union team based in Britain...

.

Personal history

De Lissa was born in Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 in 1871 and was educated at Sydney Grammar School. At around the age of 11 his family moved to England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, continuing his schooling at University College School

University College School

University College School, generally known as UCS, is an Independent school charity situated in Hampstead, north west London, England. The school was founded in 1830 by University College London and inherited many of that institution's progressive and secular views...

. He was a keen sportsman, and although he was a member of Blackheath F.C., he was not a player of note and his career was ended by a foot injury followed by a long sojorn to Germany. De Lissa also played croquet

Croquet

Croquet is a lawn game, played both as a recreational pastime and as a competitive sport. It involves hitting plastic or wooden balls with a mallet through hoops embedded into the grass playing court.-History:...

 and won the Croquet Association

Croquet Association

The Croquet Association, which was formed as the United All England Croquet Association in 1897 , is the national governing body for the sport of croquet in England, Wales, Northern Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle Of Man. Until 1974 the association was responsible for croquet in the whole...

 Silver Medal in 1909, and was slected as one of the country's ten best players when he was entered for the Beddow Cup in 1923.