Richard Appleton (academic)

Richard Appleton MA (17 February 1849 – 1 March 1909) was an English scholar, clergyman of the Church of England, and the fourth Master of Selwyn College, Cambridge, 1907 – 1909.

Appleton was from a background that was increasingly rare in producing Cambridge undergraduates in Victorian times; his father was not well off, a clergyman with a large family, and scholarships got him through Christ's Hospital and Trinity College.

He was elected a Fellow of Trinity College when he graduated, but he did not undertake major research work.

He was ordained a priest in 1878 and Appleton went to become warden of Trinity College Mission and vicar of St George's Church, Camberwell, 1894–1903.

As a clergyman and Master of Selwyn, Appleton was something of a throwback to the old pattern of Cambridge academic life prior to the "Revolution of the Dons".