"Lieutenant Henry E. Metcalfe, of the New Zealand Engineers, who was killed in action in France on April 12, was a son of Mr. Henry H. Metcalfe, civil engineer. He was born in Adelaide, and came to Hamilton with his parents as a child in 1883, receiving his education at the Auckland Grammar School and the Thames School of Mines. Lieutenant Metcalfe served his articles as an engineer to his father in Auckland, and in 1904 went to England to gain further experience in his profession, being, admitted to the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1905. Returning to New Zealand in 1909, he joined his father as a partner, and was professionally engaged on many water and drainage schemes in the North Island. On the formation of the New. Zealand Tunnelling Corps he joined it as a commissioned officer, and he has been engaged with the corps on the western front ever since it went to France. Lieutenant Metcalfe was much interested in mining and geology, and was also a yachtsman, having been the owner of the yacht Ngatira." [New Zealand Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16532, 7 May 1917, Page 7]

Henry Metcalfe was also the uncle of Rosalie Norah King Gascoigne AM who was a New Zealand-born Australian sculptor and assemblage artist. She showed at the Venice Biennale in 1982, becoming the first female artist to represent Australia there. In 1994, she was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for her services to the arts. She was born in January of the year in which her uncle died.