Charles Theophilus Metcalfe, 1st Baron Metcalfe, (30 January 1785 – 5 September 1846), known as Sir Charles Metcalfe, Bt between 1822 and 1845, was a British colonial administrator. He held appointments including acting Governor-General of India, Governor of Jamaica and Governor General of the Province of Canada.
Early life and background
Metcalfe was born on 30 January 1785 in Lecture House, Calcutta then part of the Bengal Presidency.
He was the second son of Thomas Metcalfe and Susannah Selina Sophia Debonnaire. His father first went to India in 1767 as a cadet in the British Army, and at the time of Metcalfe's birth was serving as a major in the Bengal Army. He later became a Member of Parliament, director of the British East India Company and was created a baronet on 21 December 1802. Thomas Metcalfe married Susannah in Calcutta in 1782. She was the daughter of merchant John Debonnaire, a trader at Fort St. George, Madras, who subsequently settled at the Cape of Good Hope. It was her second marriage, her first being with Major John Smith in Madras from 1776 until his death. His parents returned to England shortly after the birth of their son.
Metcalfe's elder sister was Emily Theophila, later becoming the Viscountess Ashbrook. A younger brother, Thomas, also went on to achieve distinction as a civil servant with the East India Company.
Education
Metcalfe spent four years at Eton College in Berkshire, before arriving in Bengal on 1 January 1801, a month before his sixteenth birthday. He then studied Oriental languages as the first student at Lord Wellesley's Fort William College.
India
Early career
thumb|upright|150px|Portrait of [[Akbar II with Sir Charles Theophilus Metcalf [sic] and court dignitaries]]
At the age of nineteen, Metcalfe was appointed political assistant to General Lake, who was then conducting the final campaign of the Second Anglo-Maratha War against Yashwantrao Holkar.
Acting Governor-General
In 1827 he obtained a seat in the supreme council, and in March 1835, after he had acted as the first governor of the proposed new presidency of Agra, he provisionally succeeded Lord William Bentinck as the Governor-General of Bengal (1835–36). During his brief tenure of office (it lasted for only one year) he carried out several important measures, including that for the liberation of the press, which, while almost universally popular, complicated his relations with the directors at home to such an extent that he resigned the service of the Company in 1838.
North-Western Provinces
Metcalfe was Lieutenant-Governor of the North-Western Provinces from 1 June 1836 to 1 June 1838. But his success did not endure and responsible government would be conceded by his successor James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin. Metcalfe died of skin cancer at Malshanger in Oakley, near Basingstoke, on 5 September 1846. Metcalfe was open about this relationship, and sent all three sons to England to be educated.