Sir William Appleton (3 September 1889 – 22 October 1958) was a New Zealand local body politician, advertising agent and leading company director. He was
Mayor of Wellington
The Mayor of Wellington is the head of the municipal government of the City of Wellington. The mayor presides over the Wellington City Council. The mayor is directly elected using the Single Transferable Vote method of proportional representat ...
for two terms from 1944 to 1950 after serving as a city councillor from 1931 to 1944. He was
knighted in
1950.
Biography
Early life and career
Appleton was born in
Alexandra in
Central Otago in 1889, the eldest of nine children. His parents were Yorkshireman Edwin Appleton and his Scottish wife, Margaret Bruce. The Appleton family briefly moved to
Gisborne in 1904 but was back in Alexandra in the following year. Appleton, left by the postmaster in charge of the local post office as a teenager, did some bookkeeping for local businesses. In October 1906, aged 17, he was appointed a cadet in the accountancy department of the General Post Office at
Wellington
Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...
. In 1909 he passed his accountancy exams.
He 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. Haines had founded his business, the country's first
advertising agency
An advertising agency, often referred to as a creative agency or an ad agency, is a business dedicated to creating, planning, and handling advertising and sometimes other forms of promotion and marketing for its clients. An ad agency is generally ...
, in Wellington in 1891. Will married Mary Helen (Nell) Munro in March 1913. They were to have a daughter and two sons.
By the time of the
first world war
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
25-year-old Will Appleton was manager of Charles Haines. He was appointed managing director in 1918. Nell died in 1918's influenza epidemic. The following year he married Rose Hellewell and they had a daughter and two sons.
Meanwhile, Appleton maintained his local body interests serving on the Wellington Hospital Board from 1923. In 1931 he successfully stood for the Wellington City Council.
Then in 1932 he sold his interest in Charles Haines to his former partners, accepted directorships in many major listed companies and devoted himself to politics.
Political career
Local politics
After moving to Wellington, Appleton was elected to the
Onslow Borough Council in 1915 where he led a successful campaign for amalgamation with Wellington in order to gain an integrated water and drainage system.
In 1923 he was elected to the Wellington Hospital Board on a
Civic League ticket and remained a member until 1929.
In
1931 Appleton was elected to the
Wellington City Council
Wellington City Council is a territorial authority in New Zealand, governing the country's capital city Wellington, and ''de facto'' second-largest city (if the commonly considered parts of Wellington, the Upper Hutt, Porirua, Lower Hutt and ...
where he became an effective and popular councillor renowned as being friendly, approachable and possessing a "chuckling" sense of humour. He 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.
In
1944 Appleton challenged
Thomas Hislop for the Citizens' nomination to stand for mayor. Appleton claimed he would stand as an independent should he not be granted the candidacy. Declining arbitration, Appleton got his wish when Hislop (albeit reluctantly) agreed to stand aside in the interests of unity. 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.
In a
1955 by-election Appleton was invited by the Citizens' Association to stand once again for the City Council, though he declined to re-enter local politics.
Appleton served for 21 years as a member of the
Wellington Harbour Board
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, representing Wellington City, and was its chairman for 3 of those years (1954–57).
National politics
He unsuccessfully stood for Parliament several times.
In the , he contested the electorate for the
United Party and was beaten by
Robert McKeen
Robert McKeen (12 July 1884 – 5 August 1974) was a New Zealand politician of the Labour Party. He was Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Early life
He was born in 1884 in Edinburgh and received his education in West Calder, West Loth ...
. In the , he contested the electorate as an independent candidate and came third.
In the standing for the
National Party in the electorate, he came second but was beaten by
Labour
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the labour ...
's
Peter Fraser
Peter Fraser (; 28 August 1884 – 12 December 1950) was a New Zealand politician who served as the 24th prime minister of New Zealand from 27 March 1940 until 13 December 1949. Considered a major figure in the history of the New Zealand La ...
. He was to stand against Fraser again in the cancelled 1941 general election. In the , Appleton was again unsuccessful but came second and greatly reduced Fraser's majority.
He did not contest the , but stood for a third time in Wellington Central in against Fraser's successor
Charles Chapman, but was again defeated.
Later life and death
Appleton was president of the
Wellington Rugby Football League from 1940 to 1958 and presented the Appleton Shield, which is used to this day as the premier club trophy.
In the
1950 King's Birthday Honours, Appleton was appointed a
Knight Bachelor
The title of Knight Bachelor is the basic rank granted to a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not inducted as a member of one of the organised orders of chivalry; it is a part of the British honours system. Knights Bachelor are the ...
, in recognition of his service as mayor of Wellington. In 1953 he was made a
Knight of Grace of the Order of St John, and was awarded the
Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal. Rose Appleton was appointed a
Member of the Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations,
and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
in the
1946 New Zealand Honours, and a
Commander of the Order of St John
The Order of St John, short for Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem (french: l'ordre très vénérable de l'Hôpital de Saint-Jean de Jérusalem) and also known as St John International, is a British royal order of ...
in 1958.
Appleton died of cancer in Bowen Hospital, Wellington, on 22 October 1958. Lady Appleton died in 1980.
His son, Lloyd James Appleton (1923–1985), was a newspaper editor and was elected mayor of
Dannevirke in 1965. In the
1971 New Year Honours, he was appointed a
Member of the Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations,
and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
, for services to local government and journalism.
References
Further reading
*
''No Mean City'' by Stuart Perry (1969, Wellington City Council) includes a paragraph and a portrait or photo for each mayor.
External links
Images of Sir William Appletonat the
National Library of New Zealand
The National Library of New Zealand ( mi, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa) is New Zealand's legal deposit library charged with the obligation to "enrich the cultural and economic life of New Zealand and its interchanges with other nations" (''Nat ...
, many in the
public domain
The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work
A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including fine artwork (sculpture, paintings, drawing, sketching, performance art), dance, writing (literature), filmmaking, ...
photo of Sir William Appleton (left) in 1950
, -
{{DEFAULTSORT:Appleton, William
1889 births
1958 deaths
20th-century New Zealand businesspeople
Mayors of Wellington
Wellington City Councillors
Wellington Hospital Board members
New Zealand Knights Bachelor
New Zealand rugby league administrators
Unsuccessful candidates in the 1931 New Zealand general election
Unsuccessful candidates in the 1935 New Zealand general election
Unsuccessful candidates in the 1938 New Zealand general election
Unsuccessful candidates in the 1943 New Zealand general election
Unsuccessful candidates in the 1949 New Zealand general election
Candidates in the 1941 New Zealand general election
New Zealand Liberal Party politicians
New Zealand National Party politicians
Knights of Grace of the Order of St John
Wellington Harbour Board members