Born at Bradford, 7 February 1880, son of John Appleyard FRCS, surgeon to the Royal Infirmary, who died in 1905 aged 57, he was educated at Bradford Grammar School and University College Hospital, London, where he was a scholar and gold-medallist and a house surgeon. He studied in Berlin and was resident surgical officer at Wolverhampton General Hospital before returning to Bradford, where he was appointed assistant surgeon at the Royal Eye and Ear Hospital in 1911. During the war of 1914-18 he served in France as an ear nose and throat specialist. Returning to Bradford he became in due course consultant aural surgeon at the Royal Eye and Ear Hospital and laryngologist to the Royal Infirmary. He was also aural surgeon to the Reedyford Memorial Hospital, Nelson. He retired in 1948. He was treasurer of the Bradford division of the British Medical Association in 1930-31. At the annual meeting of the Association at Bradford in 1924 he had been a vice-president of the section of laryngology and otology. He was a shy, reserved man, whose personal interests were in music and Freemasonry. Appleyard was twice married. He died on 31 March 1961 aged 81, survived by his wife and two daughters; his son had been killed in a driving accident.