William Pickering may refer to:

Politicians

  • William Pickering (Australian politician), Western Australian state MP
  • William Pickering (governor) (1798–1873), Republican governor of Washington territory, 1862–1866
  • William A. Pickering (1840–1907), first Protector appointed by the British government to administer the Chinese Protectorate in colonial Singapore
  • William Pickering (British MP) for Warwick (UK Parliament constituency)

Sports

  • William Pickering (cricketer) (1819–1905), organiser of the first overseas cricket tour by an English side
  • Bill Pickering (Australian footballer) (1879–1939), Australian footballer for St Kilda
  • William Pickering (footballer) (1894–1917), Scottish-born association football player, playing for English team Burnley
  • Bill Pickering (footballer, born 1901) (1901–1971), English-born professional footballer, playing for English and Welsh teams
  • Bill Pickering (footballer, born 1919) (1919-1983), English footballer, see List of Oldham Athletic A.F.C. players (25–99 appearances)

Others

  • William Pickering (fiction), director of the National Reconnaissance Office in Dan Brown's book Deception Point
  • William Pickering (publisher) (1796–1854), British publisher and bookseller
  • William H. Pickering (engineer) (1910–2004), director of the NASA/Caltech Jet Propulsion Laboratory from 1954 to 1976
  • William Henry Pickering (1858–1938), American astronomer