British overseas administrator who, as acting governor general of India, instituted in that country important reforms, particularly freedom of the press and the establishment of English as the official language. He later served as crown-appointed governor of Jamaica and governor general of Canada.

The second son of Maj. Thomas Metcalfe, who became a director of the East India Company and was made a baronet in 1802, Charles Metcalfe was educated at Eton College, Buckinghamshire. Returning to Calcutta (1801), he became a writer in the company's service. In 1803 he became personal secretary to the governor general, Lord Wellesley. He served as political assistant to Gen. Gerard Lake in the Third Marāthā War (fought between the British and the Marāthās of southwestern India). In 1808 he was sent as envoy to Lahore to secure Sikh support against the Napoleonic threat to India, afterward securing the Sikhs' agreement to British protection of all Sikh states east of the Sutlej River. He then served as resident in Gwalior (1810), in Delhi (1811–19), and in Hyderābād (1820–22), succeeding to the baronetcy in 1822.

Metcalfe became a member of the all-India governing supreme council in 1827 and, on Lord William Bentinck's departure in March 1835, acting governor general. The British government, refusing to retain an East India Company official as governor general, appointed Lord Auckland to the post. Metcalfe was made lieutenant governor of the northwest provinces the following year, but, denied governorship of Madras, he resigned in 1838 and returned to England. The following year he was appointed governor of Jamaica, where he eased the transition to the emancipation of blacks and updated judicial practices. Suffering from cancer, he resigned in 1842 and returned to England, but the following year he accepted the governor generalship of Canada, where he grappled with party politics. His health failing, he returned to England in 1845, soon after being raised to the peerage.