18 Facts About Will Appleton

Sir William Appleton was a New Zealand local body politician, advertising agent and leading company director.

Will Appleton was Mayor of Wellington for two terms from 1944 to 1950 after serving as a city councillor from 1931 to 1944.

Will Appleton's parents were Yorkshireman Edwin Appleton and his Scottish wife, Margaret Bruce.

Will Appleton, left by the postmaster in charge of the local post office as a teenager, did some bookkeeping for local businesses.

Will Appleton left the Post and Telegraph Department, then still a centre of modern communications technology, and in April 1910 joined advertising agent Charles Haines and Co.

In 1931 Will Appleton was elected to the Wellington City Council where he became an effective and popular councillor renowned as being friendly, approachable and possessing a "chuckling" sense of humour.

Will Appleton became chair of the Works Committee and oversaw the introduction of a system of refuse disposal to converted gullies into sports grounds including Appleton Park, which was named after him.

Will Appleton was an advocate of moral re-armament and helped prepare the city for wartime contingencies.

In 1944 Will Appleton challenged Thomas Hislop for the Citizens' nomination to stand for mayor.

Will Appleton claimed he would stand as an independent should he not be granted the candidacy.

Will Appleton was elected with a huge majority and was later re-elected for a second term in 1947 by a lower margin before retiring in 1950.

Will Appleton did remain involved however and was invited as a speaker to a Citizens' Association meeting in 1957 held to discuss their loss of the mayoralty at the 1956 election, following a split between two candidates.

Will Appleton served for 21 years as a member of the Wellington Harbour Board, representing Wellington City, and was its chairman from 1954 to 1957.

Will Appleton was to stand against Fraser again in the cancelled 1941 general election.

Will Appleton did not contest the 1946 election, but stood for a third time in Wellington Central in 1949 election against Fraser's successor Charles Chapman, but was again defeated.

Will Appleton was president of the Wellington Rugby Football League from 1940 to 1958 and presented the Will Appleton Shield, which is used to this day as the premier club trophy.

Will Appleton died of cancer in Bowen Hospital, Wellington, on 22 October 1958.

Will Appleton's son, Lloyd James Appleton, was a newspaper editor and was elected mayor of Dannevirke in 1965.