Barclay was born in 1922 in Dargaville. He received his education at Whangarei High School before moving to Canterbury where he worked as a milk-supply farmer. Barclay was an active sportsman in his youth and represented South Canterbury in rugby and tennis in the 1943, 1945, 1946 seasons. In 1956 he was appointed a director of the Canterbury Dairy Farmers, Ltd. and was elected as deputy chairman of the board in 1966. He also worked as an officer at the Ministry of Agriculture.
Political career
Barclay was a member of the Lyttelton Harbour Board from 1965 to 1968. He stood unsuccessfully for Labour in the electorate in the, the, and the. The polling night results in the Fendalton by-election showed a 67-vote majority to Barclay, however after special votes were counted National did manage to hold the seat by just 286 votes, a swing of over 5% to Labour. This was a surprise result in a safe National seat. He represented the Christchurch Central electorate in the New Zealand House of Representatives from 1969 to 1979 when he died. Barclay was much-liked within the Labour Party. As a result of his popularity he was elected a member of the Labour Party's national council where he was active in the governance of the party. He preferentially kept a low profile in Wellington but was renown for his hard work in his electorate for constituents and was involved in many community and social groups in Christchurch. When interviewed before the 1978 election Barclay stated his main ambition as local MP was to help develop community spirit through his activity within voluntary groups. Barclay was Parliamentary Under-Secretary to the Minister of Agriculture and from 26 March 1973 to 12 December 1975 and Under-Secretary to the Minister of Lands from 16 September 1974 to 12 December 1975 in the Third Labour Government. After Labour's defeat in 1975 Barclay was appointed shadow minister of agriculture by Labour leaderBill Rowling.
Death
Barclay died on 28 June 1979 aged 56, survived by his wife and three children. He had been ill for some months prior to his death where it was reported he was suffering from cancer and had already had two surgical operations. His absence was noticed at Labour's first caucus meeting in February 1979 and Rowling stated he had visited Barclay earlier and expressed concern at his health after Barclay had become unable to perform his electorate duties earlier in the month. Barclay's death caused the 1979 Christchurch Central by-election that was won by Geoffrey Palmer.
Personal life
He was the son of Jim Barclay, a farmer, MP for Marsden and Minister of Agriculture between 1941 and 1943. A contemporary Labour MP Ron Barclay was his cousin. He played golf for recreation. His second marriage was on 2 November 1968 to Ethel Audrey Howe, the daughter of G. Howe. They had one son and two daughters. Towards the end of his life, he lived in Tancred Street in the Christchurch suburb of Linwood.
