James Gillespie Barclay was a New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 politician of the Labour Party

New Zealand Labour Party

The New Zealand Labour Party is a New Zealand political party. It describes itself as centre-left and socially progressive and has been one of the two primary parties of New Zealand politics since 1935....

. He was a cabinet minister in the First Labour Government

First Labour Government of New Zealand

The First Labour Government of New Zealand was the government of New Zealand from 1935 to 1949. It set the tone of New Zealand's economic and welfare policies until the 1980s, establishing a welfare state, a system of Keynesian economic management, and high levels of state intervention...

 from 1941 to 1943; Minister of Agriculture

Minister of Agriculture (New Zealand)

The Minister of Agriculture is a ministerial portfolio in the government of New Zealand. the Minister of Agriculture is David Carter, of the New Zealand National Party...

 and Minister of Marketing, and in 1943 Minister of Lands also.

He represented the electorate of Marsden

Marsden (New Zealand electorate)

Marsden is a former parliamentary electorate, in the Whangarei District in the Northland Region of New Zealand.-Population Centres:The electorate was mixed urban and rural, around the city of Whangarei.-History:...

 in Northland from the 1935 general election

New Zealand general election, 1935

The 1935 New Zealand general election was a nationwide vote to determine the shape of the New Zealand Parliament's 25th term. It resulted in the Labour Party's first electoral victory, with Michael Joseph Savage becoming the first Labour Prime Minister...

 but was defeated in 1943

New Zealand general election, 1943

The 1943 New Zealand general election was a nationwide vote to determine the shape of the New Zealand Parliament's 27th term. With the onset of World War II, elections were initially postponed, but it was eventually decided to hold a general election in September 1943, around two years after it...

.

He then became High Commissioner to Australia from 1944 to 1950

A son, Bruce Barclay

Bruce Barclay

Bruce Gillispie Barclay was a New Zealand politician, being the Member of Parliament for Christchurch Central in the South Island.-Member of Parliament:...

, was Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 for Christchurch

Christchurch

Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the country's second-largest urban area after Auckland. It lies one third of the way down the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula which itself, since 2006, lies within the formal limits of...

 Central from 1969 to 1979. A relative, Ron Barclay

Ron Barclay

Ronald Morrison Barclay M.B.E., Q.S.M., J.P. was a New Zealand politician of the Labour Party.Represented the Taranaki electorate of New Plymouth in Parliament from 1966 to 1975...

, was also an MP.