Sir William Wilkinson Addison (4 April 1905 – 1 November 1992) was an English historian, writer and jurist.

William Addison was born in 1905 at Mitton, now in the Ribble Valley of Lancashire, England.

The Addison family were borough administrators and recorders at Clitheroe, one a Constable of Lancaster Castle, and supported the restoration of parish churches and two grammar schools, one of which, Clitheroe Royal Grammar School, William Addison attended.

[1][2] After Addison's marriage in 1929 to Phoebe Dean, daughter of Robert Dean of Rimington, then in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the couple moved to Suffolk, and then to Buckhurst Hill on the edge of Epping Forest, Essex.

Addison bought a bookshop in the neighbouring town of Loughton, and began his lifelong association with Epping Forest which resulted in books on the history and people of the area.