Year: 1891 - 1893
Occupation: Mayor of Wellington

William Appleton was a very successful business and a successful politician. He was Mayor of Wellington 1944-50 and Karori’s Appleton Park is named after him. He was knighted in 1950. He was a member of the Wellington Harbour Board, a director of the New Zealand Centennial Exhibition Company, president (1948–51) of the Municipal Association of New Zealand and was on the 1954 board of inquiry which investigated the Tangiwai rail disaster.