A biography of English barrister and conchologist William Metcalfe is presented. He was born on May 18, 1804. He specialized as an equity draughtsman and conveyancer and retired due to ill health in 1855. He was considered as one of British entomologists in the late 1850s and was known to have been interested in British Lepidoptera. Several taxa were named after him including Triphoris metcalfei, Conus metcalfii, and Modiola metcalfei.