William Harvey Buckland was born on 27 March 1858 in Hobart, one of the three sons and four daughters of John Richard Buckland (1819 - 1874) and his wife Catherine Latham who migrated to Tasmania in 1843, where J. R. Buckland subsequently became the first headmaster of the Hutchins School, a position he held with distinction for twenty eight years.;;;;After William Harvey Buckland completed his education at Hutchins he won first place in the examination for Associate of Arts in 1874 and a scholarship which took him to Oxford (B.A., 1880). He returned to Hobart to teach at Hutchins under his brother John Vansittart Buckland. Frederic George Howell, who had married their sister Martha on 3 October 1874, was also a member of the staff. Thus for its first fifty years the Hutchins School was controlled and managed by the Buckland family. ;;;;William founded the school Cadet Corp in 1885, members of which later served in the Boer War and won two Victoria Crosses. After his brother retired William left the Hutchins School and opened a preparatory school of his own which he ran sucessfully for many years. He died in Hobart on 31 January 1929. ;;;;His wife Marion Frances Gertrude (daughter of Thomas Wright) predeceased him on 7 July 1928. They had lived at "Hazelwood" in Risdon Road, New Town for many years and had no children. They married around 1890.;;;;His sister Katherine, accompanied their brother John Vansittart Buckland to England in 1892, and until 1930 was matron of one of the houses at Eton. The eldest sister, Fanny married Arthur P. Blake, a solicitor of Melbourne, and died in London on 15 July 1933.