Claude Barnard

The Honourable Claude Barnard
Minister for Repatriation
In office 1 November 1946 – 19 December 1949
Prime Minister	Ben Chifley
Preceded by	Charles Frost
Succeeded by	Walter Cooper
Member of the Australian Parliament for Bass
In office 15 September 1934 – 10 December 1949
Preceded by	Allan Guy
Succeeded by	Bruce Kekwick
Personal details
Born	(1890-10-16)16 October 1890 Mole Creek, Tasmania, Australia
Died	6 December 1957(1957-12-06) (aged 67) Launceston, Tasmania, Australia
Political party	Labor
Spouse	Martha Melva McKenzie ​ ​ (m. 1912)​
Relations	Lance Barnard (son)
Occupation	Engine driver

Herbert Claude Barnard (16 October 1890 – 6 December 1957) was an Australian politician. He was a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and represented the Division of Bass in federal parliament from 1934 to 1949. He served as Minister for Repatriation in the Chifley government from 1946 to 1949. His son Lance Barnard also entered federal politics and served as Deputy Prime Minister of Australia in the 1970s.

Early life

Barnard was born on 16 October 1890 in Mole Creek, Tasmania. He was the son of Charlotte (née Tipper) and Ernest Walter Barnard; his father was a wheelwright.

Barnard attended the state school at Invermay, leaving school at the age of fourteen to work in a plant nursery. He joined Tasmanian Government Railways in 1909, progressing from engine-cleaner to fireman to engine-driver, based out of Launceston. Barnard served as state secretary of the Australian Federated Union of Locomotive Enginemen. He was also president or secretary of the Launceston Trades Hall Council on several occasions.

Federal politics

Barnard stood unsuccessfully at the 1931 election as the Australian Labor Party candidate for the seat of Bass in the Australian House of Representatives. In 1933, he became state secretary of the party and at the 1934 election he won Bass. From 1941 to 1946, he was chairman of the joint parliamentary committee on social security, which developed much of the Curtin and Chifley governments' social policy agenda. In November 1946, he was appointed Minister for Repatriation in the second Chifley Ministry. Although one of his sons was killed in the war and the other two were injured, he was under constant attack from service organisations and others for not delivering more for war veterans and, like his predecessor, Charles Frost, in 1946, he lost his seat at the 1949 election, in his case, to Liberal candidate Bruce Kekwick. Barnard's son Lance as the ALP candidate would later defeat Kekwick in Bass at the 1954 election.

State politics

In 1950, Barnard was elected to represent the Tasmanian House of Assembly division of Bass and held it until his death in 1957.

Personal life

Barnard married Martha McKenzie in 1912, with whom he had four children. His son Lance Barnard was deputy prime minister in the Whitlam government, while his nephew Eric and grandson Michael were also members of parliament.

Barnard died of cancer on 6 December 1957 at Launceston Public Hospital, aged 67. He was granted a state funeral.