[13][14] He served in the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps (BVRC), commissioned as a second-lieutenant with seniority from 9 March 1895.

On 12 April 1901, the Officer Commanding Troops of the Bermuda Garrison received notification that the Governor and military Commander-in-Chief had appointed Captain R.W.

Appleby, BVRC, to be a Captain with the Cadet Corps at Saltus Grammar School (dated 11 February).

[16] During the First World War, the BVRC fulfilled its role within the Bermuda Garrison while also sending a contingent of 88 other ranks under the command of Appleby's cousin, Captain Richard Jennings Tucker, to join the 1st Battalion of the Lincolnshire Regiment on the Western Front in June 1915.

[11] Appleby was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in King George VI's 1947 New Year Honours for "Public services in Bermuda".

[22] He died on 30 August 1948(1948-08-30) (aged 83) at Doctor's Hospital, New York, and was buried at Pembroke Cemetery in Bermuda.