Bill Barnard

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New Zealand politician

title: "Bill Barnard" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["20th-century-mayors-of-places-in-new-zealand", "new-zealand-labour-party-mps", "independent-mps-of-new-zealand", "new-zealand-commanders-of-the-order-of-the-british-empire", "speakers-of-the-new-zealand-house-of-representatives", "new-zealand-mps-for-north-island-electorates", "20th-century-new-zealand-lawyers", "british-army-personnel-of-world-war-i", "victoria-university-of-wellington-alumni", "people-from-carterton,-new-zealand", "mayors-of-tauranga", "1886-births", "1958-deaths", "democratic-labour-party-(new-zealand)-politicians", "members-of-the-new-zealand-house-of-representatives", "unsuccessful-candidates-in-the-1943-new-zealand-general-election", "unsuccessful-candidates-in-the-1925-new-zealand-general-election", "royal-army-medical-corps-soldiers", "royal-field-artillery-soldiers"] description: "New Zealand politician" topic_path: "law" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Barnard" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary New Zealand politician ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox officeholder"]

Field	Value
honorific-prefix	The Honourable
name	Bill Barnard
honorific-suffix
image	William Edward Barnard, 1925.jpg
caption	Barnard in 1925
order2	10th Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives
primeminister2	Michael Joseph Savage†
Peter Fraser
term_start2	25 March 1936
term_end2	25 September 1943
predecessor2	Charles Statham
successor2	Bill Schramm
constituency_MP3	Napier
parliament3	New Zealand
term_start3	14 November 1928
term_end3	25 September 1943
predecessor3	John Mason
successor3	Tommy Armstrong
birth_name	William Edward Barnard
birth_date
birth_place	Carterton, New Zealand
death_date
death_place	Auckland, New Zealand
party	Labour
Democratic Labour Party
allegiance	New Zealand Army
serviceyears	1916–18
rank	[[File:British Army OR-3.svg
battles	World War I
::

Early life

Barnard was born in Carterton, a town in the Wairarapa region. He studied law at Victoria University College, and became a lawyer in 1908. He eventually settled in Te Aroha, where he served on the borough council. In 1915, he travelled to the United Kingdom and joined the Royal Army Medical Corps to serve in World War I. After serving for a time in Egypt, he became a gunner in the Royal Field Artillery, serving in Palestine. Following World War I, he returned to New Zealand and resumed practice as a lawyer.

Parliamentary career

Becoming increasingly interested in left-wing politics, Barnard joined the young Labour Party in 1923. He was a good friend of John A. Lee, one of the more radical members of the Labour Party. Barnard rose quickly, being elected to the Labour Party's national executive in 1924. In the 1925 election, he was Labour's candidate in the Kaipara seat – the incumbent was Gordon Coates, the Prime Minister, and Barnard was unsuccessful. In the 1928 elections, he stood in the seat of Napier, and narrowly defeated the incumbent Reform Party MP.

In 1935, he was awarded the King George V Silver Jubilee Medal.

In the 1935 election, he was returned with a comfortable majority, perhaps assisted by his work in response to the Napier earthquake. When the Labour Party won power in 1935, many believed that he would be appointed Minister of Justice. In the end, however, this position was given to Rex Mason. Instead, Barnard was nominated as Speaker of the House. He was elected to this position in March 1936. In the , he was challenged in the electorate by John Ormond of the National Party, but he won with a large majority.{{cite web |title = The General Election, 1938 |url = http://atojs.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/atojs?a=d&d=AJHR1939-I.2.3.2.36 |publisher = National Library |accessdate = 8 February 2012 |page = 3 |year = 1939

Politically, Barnard was on the left of the Labour Party, and was strongly influenced by the social credit theory of monetary reform. He was also a strong Anglican, and considered himself to be a Christian socialist. Barnard became known as one of the senior members of the left-leaning, creditist faction of the party, although his old friend John A. Lee was the faction's de facto leader. As Lee's relationship with the Labour Party leadership deteriorated, Barnard sided with Lee. Lee was eventually expelled, and after Peter Fraser, an opponent of Lee, was elected leader on 4 April 1940, Barnard himself resigned from the party. ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f1/Bill_Barnard,_speaker.jpg" caption="Barnard in Speakers robes, 1930s"] ::

Barnard then assisted Lee in the launch of the new Democratic Labour Party, becoming one of its two MPs. Despite his departure from the governing party, he retained the office of Speaker. Soon, however, Barnard became dissatisfied with Lee's style of leadership, considering it to be egotistical and autocratic. Rather than seek re-election as a Democratic Labour Party candidate, he opted to stand as an independent, but was defeated.

Later life

Following his departure from Parliament, Barnard returned to law, setting up a legal practice in Tauranga. In 1950, he became mayor, serving for two years. The workload of his mayoral duties combined with those of his legal practice had begun to negatively affect his health and he resigned before the completion of the term necessitating a by-election.

Barnard also undertook considerable work with various non-profit organisations, including the Society for Closer Relations with the USSR (Russia), the Institute of Pacific Relations's New Zealand branch, the New Zealand Five Million Club (promoting population growth), and the New Zealand Council for the Adoption of Chinese Refugee Children. For the latter, he was awarded the Order of the Brilliant Star by the government of the Republic of China. In 1953, he was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal. In the 1957 New Year Honours, he was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, for political and public services.

Barnard died in Auckland on 12 March 1958.

References

{{DNZB. Atkinson. Neill. 4b5. William Edward Barnard
(6 May 1935). "Official jubilee medals". Evening Post.
(18 July 1952). "Personal Items". [[The Press]].
(3 July 1953). "Coronation Medal". Supplement to the New Zealand Gazette.
{{London Gazette. (28 December 1956)

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