Sir William Lane Booker, CMG, FRGS (12 July 1824 – 19 February 1905) was a British diplomat stationed in the United States.

Attracted by Colonel Mason's report on the discovery of gold in California, he left England on 17 January 1849 for Chagres, then the chief Atlantic port on the Isthmus of Panama.

After a three-week wait in Panama City, he then traveled north on board a clipper to San Francisco, arriving at the end of June 1849.

Failing to make his fortune, he returned to San Francisco and worked for English insurance and mining companies for several years.

On the formation of the British consulate in the city in the spring of 1851 the booker began work there as a secretary.