His retirement was hastened by a disaster in the Stann Creek Valley, when he was nearly crushed to death in a collision. He spent a long period in Stann Creek, Belize and Guatemala City Hospital. Metzgen joined the British Honduras Mounted Infantry on 1 March 1906 and the next year he went with the force, under Major F.M. Maxwell, to quell a riot at the Stann Creek Railway. The same year he accompanied the force again to Sapodilla Cayes on the "City of Belize" to assist in preventing filibustering on the coast of General Bonilla of Honduras. In 1915 he applied to join the War Contingent but his application was not approved owing to the number of Civil Servants that had already obtained permission to enlist. He was appointed 2nd Lieutenant of the British Honduras Territorial Forces in June, 1918 and on the formation of the Defence Force in 1928 he was appointed a Lieutenant of this Force. He was in charge of the Defence Force during the first two days after the Belize hurricane of September 1931. Metzgen was a member of the Church of England in British Honduras. Metzgen was the founder of the British Honduras Agricultural Society and helped stage the agricultural and industrial exhibitions in 1928 and 1931. In 1927 he convened at Belize an agricultural conference which brought together planters from all sections of the Colony. He was a member of the Agricultural Advisory Committee appointed by His Excellency the Governor and Chief Justice Greenidge as Chairman. For three terms he was a Member of the Belize Town board under the chairmanship of the Rev. Robert Cleghorn OBE, and for a period he was a member of the Belize Electricity Board. For several years he was Chairman of the St George's Caye Day Celebrations Committee at Belize. He served with the Honorable C. Douglas-Jones and the Honorable Willoughby Bullock on a Treasury Inquiry Committee and he was Secretary to the Colonial Lindbergh's Reception Committee and a Hotel (for Belize) Committee of which the late Honorable Sally Wolffsohn was Chairman. He also acted as Private Secretary for His Excellency Colonel Maxwell Hinds with on a special mission of investigation to El Cayo. He was the first Treasurer of the Infant Welfare League. He was the first President of the Eureka Band and the first President of the Native Jockey Club. He gave to Stann Creek flourishing Poor Relief Organisations. Realising that the lack of roads would retard the agricultural development of the Colony, Metzgen produced propaganda for Ford with the slogan "Roads, Roads and Still More Roads".