William Edward Armytage Axon FRSL (13 January 1846 – 27 December 1913) was an English librarian, antiquary and journalist for the Manchester Guardian.

He was the illegitimate child of Edward Armytage, a clothing manufacturer, and Lydia Whitehead, a 15 year old servant girl in his household.

From a young age, he displayed a remarkable ability to absorb knowledge, an extraordinary memory, and a deep love of books and learning.

Axon had begun life as a boy in the Manchester Reference Library, and was early drawn to literary pursuits.

[note 1] Axon contributed articles on the history of vegetarianism to John Harvey Kellogg's Good Health journal.

[7] Axon wrote the preface for the 1884 edition of Percy Bysshe Shelley's A Vindication of Natural Diet.

Historian Ina Zweiniger-Bargielowska has noted that "Axon abhorred cruelty to animals and the degrading work of the 'slaughterman, reeking with blood and striking to death with remorseless blows a creature that shares with him the gift of life".