APPLETON, Mary Ellen or Helen, known as Nell née MUNRO
Born 18 April 1887; died 15 November 1918; buried 16 November 1918; age 31
Nell was born to William MUNRO and his wife Catherine McKENZIE, who married in 1879, and between 1880 and 1898 her parents had six daughters and two sons; those born from 1883 onwards were all born in Wellington, where her father worked for New Zealand Railways.
Nell was their sixth child and third daughter and likely educated locally. She attended the Kent Terrace Presbyterian Church and belonged to the Junior Christian Endeavour Committee where she met Will APPLETON, who led the committee (v). Her father died in August 1893, and was buried in Karori Cemetery, aged 55. His occupation was recorded as platelayer.
Her mother, and Nell and some of her sisters were recorded in electoral rolls as living in Konini Road, Haitaitai from 1911 onwards. Catherine was registered as a widow on the 1911 electoral roll, and living with her was a son Henry, a printer, and two spinster daughters - Mary Helen and Rachel Corbett. Catherine may have supported her family in previous years as a tailoress.
On 31 March 1913 Nell and Will were married at the Hataitai home of her mother, with the Rev J Kennedy Elliott, BA as celebrant (i).
William Appleton was born in Alexandra in 1889, about 18 months after Nell, to a Scottish mother, Margaret BRUCE and her husband, a Yorkshireman, Edwin Appleton. Will was the eldest of their nine children. He passed the proficiency examination in 1901, attending a standard 7 year as there was no secondary school in the area. He then worked briefly as an office boy and a telegraphic messenger, doing book keeping for local Alexandra businesses before obtaining a cadetship in 1906 in the General Post Office in Wellington (ii).
By 1909 Will had passed his final senior civil service examination after evening class study at Wellington Technical College. He also passed the examination for associateship of the Incorporated Institute of Accountants of New Zealand, enabling him to move employment from Post and Telegraph stores in 1910 to a bookkeeping role in the advertising agency run by Charles Haines in Wellington (ix). There he became manager by 1913, the year of his marriage to Nell.
Their son, Bruce McKenzie Appleton, was born in 1914 and a second followed in 1915, named Ian Elliot Appleton. Nell and Will made their home in Nairnville, Ngaio where Will led an active community life with many wide-ranging interests, including the Kent Terrace Presbyterian Church Literary Association and the Khandallah Literary and Debating Society. In 1915 he was elected to the Onslow Borough Council, campaigning for amalgamation with Wellington city to improve Onslow’s water and drainage services.
In August 1918 he became managing director at the Haines advertising agency, shortly before the influenza epidemic struck.
Nell died at home in Nairnville on 15 November 1918, having been sick for 10 days (iii). She was 31 and her two boys were just 5 and 3 years old.
A death notice recorded:
APPLETON.—On the 15th November, 1918, at Nairnville, Khandallah, Mary Helen, beloved wife of Will Appleton, and daughter of Catherine Munro, and of the late William Munro, of New Zealand Railways, Wellington, and sister of Mrs F. W. Mansell, Bulls; aged 31 years. Deeply regretted. (iv)
Nell’s husband Will also contracted influenza but recovered.
In December 1919 he remarried, to Rose HELLEWELL, in Christchurch. Will helped Charles Haines expand his advertising agency into a nationwide business, later becoming its principal owner.
Standing for election on the Citizens ticket, Will served on the Wellington Hospital Board from 1923 to 1929. He was elected to the Wellington City Council in 1931 and later the Wellington Harbour Board and became a fellow of the Incorporated Institute of Accountants. He took on a number of directorships, became a keen advocate for moral rearmament, worked for the order of St John, and was president of the Wellington Rugby Football Club from 1940 to 1958.
He chaired the public works committee of the Wellington City Council from 1935 to 1950. In the late 1930s he became a director of the New Zealand Centennial Exhibition Company and was heavily involved in planning the event.
A likeable and effective man, in 1944 he became Mayor of Wellington, a position he held until 1950, retiring undefeated the year he was knighted. He was also president of the Municipal Association of New Zealand from 1948 to 1951.
Appleton Park in Karori is named in his honour, recognising the system of refuse disposal he promoted, which converted gullies into sports fields.
His bids for a parliamentary seat in Wellington Central for the National Party were not successful. From 1954 to 1957 he chaired the Wellington Harbour Board, and served on the Local Government Loans Board as well as the 1954 board of inquiry into the Tangiwai disaster (v). Will Appleton died in 1958 and was cremated at Karori Cemetery.
Nell (Mary Helen or Ellen) Appleton was buried in Public 2 section of Karori Cemetery in plot 350H.
Researched and written by Jenny Robertson and Barbara Mulligan
(i) Evening Post 1 May 1913, page 1.
(ii) https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/4a19/appleton-william accessed 29 June 2018 authored by Alison Buchan.
(iii) Evening Post 23 April 1910, page 5.
(iv) Dominion 26 November 1918, page 4.
(v) Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus 30 November 1918, page 4.
Born 18 April 1887; died 15 November 1918; buried 16 November 1918; age 31
Nell was born to William MUNRO and his wife Catherine McKENZIE, who married in 1879, and between 1880 and 1898 her parents had six daughters and two sons; those born from 1883 onwards were all born in Wellington, where her father worked for New Zealand Railways.
Nell was their sixth child and third daughter and likely educated locally. She attended the Kent Terrace Presbyterian Church and belonged to the Junior Christian Endeavour Committee where she met Will APPLETON, who led the committee (v). Her father died in August 1893, and was buried in Karori Cemetery, aged 55. His occupation was recorded as platelayer.
Her mother, and Nell and some of her sisters were recorded in electoral rolls as living in Konini Road, Haitaitai from 1911 onwards. Catherine was registered as a widow on the 1911 electoral roll, and living with her was a son Henry, a printer, and two spinster daughters - Mary Helen and Rachel Corbett. Catherine may have supported her family in previous years as a tailoress.
On 31 March 1913 Nell and Will were married at the Hataitai home of her mother, with the Rev J Kennedy Elliott, BA as celebrant (i).
William Appleton was born in Alexandra in 1889, about 18 months after Nell, to a Scottish mother, Margaret BRUCE and her husband, a Yorkshireman, Edwin Appleton. Will was the eldest of their nine children. He passed the proficiency examination in 1901, attending a standard 7 year as there was no secondary school in the area. He then worked briefly as an office boy and a telegraphic messenger, doing book keeping for local Alexandra businesses before obtaining a cadetship in 1906 in the General Post Office in Wellington (ii).
By 1909 Will had passed his final senior civil service examination after evening class study at Wellington Technical College. He also passed the examination for associateship of the Incorporated Institute of Accountants of New Zealand, enabling him to move employment from Post and Telegraph stores in 1910 to a bookkeeping role in the advertising agency run by Charles Haines in Wellington (ix). There he became manager by 1913, the year of his marriage to Nell.
Their son, Bruce McKenzie Appleton, was born in 1914 and a second followed in 1915, named Ian Elliot Appleton. Nell and Will made their home in Nairnville, Ngaio where Will led an active community life with many wide-ranging interests, including the Kent Terrace Presbyterian Church Literary Association and the Khandallah Literary and Debating Society. In 1915 he was elected to the Onslow Borough Council, campaigning for amalgamation with Wellington city to improve Onslow’s water and drainage services.
In August 1918 he became managing director at the Haines advertising agency, shortly before the influenza epidemic struck.
Nell died at home in Nairnville on 15 November 1918, having been sick for 10 days (iii). She was 31 and her two boys were just 5 and 3 years old.
A death notice recorded:
APPLETON.—On the 15th November, 1918, at Nairnville, Khandallah, Mary Helen, beloved wife of Will Appleton, and daughter of Catherine Munro, and of the late William Munro, of New Zealand Railways, Wellington, and sister of Mrs F. W. Mansell, Bulls; aged 31 years. Deeply regretted. (iv)
Nell’s husband Will also contracted influenza but recovered.
In December 1919 he remarried, to Rose HELLEWELL, in Christchurch. Will helped Charles Haines expand his advertising agency into a nationwide business, later becoming its principal owner.
Standing for election on the Citizens ticket, Will served on the Wellington Hospital Board from 1923 to 1929. He was elected to the Wellington City Council in 1931 and later the Wellington Harbour Board and became a fellow of the Incorporated Institute of Accountants. He took on a number of directorships, became a keen advocate for moral rearmament, worked for the order of St John, and was president of the Wellington Rugby Football Club from 1940 to 1958.
He chaired the public works committee of the Wellington City Council from 1935 to 1950. In the late 1930s he became a director of the New Zealand Centennial Exhibition Company and was heavily involved in planning the event.
A likeable and effective man, in 1944 he became Mayor of Wellington, a position he held until 1950, retiring undefeated the year he was knighted. He was also president of the Municipal Association of New Zealand from 1948 to 1951.
Appleton Park in Karori is named in his honour, recognising the system of refuse disposal he promoted, which converted gullies into sports fields.
His bids for a parliamentary seat in Wellington Central for the National Party were not successful. From 1954 to 1957 he chaired the Wellington Harbour Board, and served on the Local Government Loans Board as well as the 1954 board of inquiry into the Tangiwai disaster (v). Will Appleton died in 1958 and was cremated at Karori Cemetery.
Nell (Mary Helen or Ellen) Appleton was buried in Public 2 section of Karori Cemetery in plot 350H.
Researched and written by Jenny Robertson and Barbara Mulligan
(i) Evening Post 1 May 1913, page 1.
(ii) https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/4a19/appleton-william accessed 29 June 2018 authored by Alison Buchan.
(iii) Evening Post 23 April 1910, page 5.
(iv) Dominion 26 November 1918, page 4.
(v) Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus 30 November 1918, page 4.