William Douglas Macleod was born in Clarkston, a district in Glasgow, Scotland on January 1, 1892. Macleod worked in a bank between 1906 and 1915 and served in the Royal Artillery during the First World War. Mcleod enrolled at the Glasgow School of Art after the cessation of hostilities where he studied with Maurice Griffenhagen (1862-1931) between 1919 and 1923. He lived and worked in his home in Lenzie, Renfrewshire in Glasgow between 1913 and 1949. Upon graduation in 1923, he began painting Scottish and European landscapes as well as producing many fine etchings between 1926 and 1963, influenced by colleague James McBey, in Belgium, France, Spain and North Africa. Between 1920 and 1930 he worked as a cartoonist for the Glasgow Evening News.

Only forty two of his etchings are known, of which only about twenty can be dated. His work was illustrated in Fine Prints of the Year in 1927 and his name disappeared from their roles in 1930 when he seems to have quit etching. He signed many of his etchings W. Douglas Macleod to distinguish them from the work of Australian-born artist William Macleod. The Fine Art Society, London, published Macleod’s etchings in the 1920s. He also designed a number of posters for the British Railway. His work is represented in the Glasgow Municipal Art Gallery.

William Douglas Macleod died in Glasgow, Scotland in 1963.