Sir William Appleton KStJ (3 September 1889 – 22 October 1958) was a New Zealand local body politician, advertising agent and leading company director.

[1] 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.

In 1931 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.

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 (formerly it was known as Chaytor Street tip).

The council spent money on drawing up plans on how to evacuate the city's wartime population of 123,000, digging underground shelters and constructing concrete bunkers.

[9][10] 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.

[11] He 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.

[21] In 1953 he was made a Knight of Grace of the Order of St John,[22] and was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal.

In the 1971 New Year Honours, he was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire, for services to local government and journalism.