Lance Herbert Barnard was born in Launceston in 1919, son of former federal politician H C Barnard, and was educated at Launceston Technical College. During World War II, he enlisted in the 2nd AIF and served in the Middle East with 2/8 Australian Field Regiment, 9 Division (1940-43). He was discharged on 7 February 1945, became a schoolteacher and was also a Captain in the Australian Cadet Corps.

In 1954, Barnard was elected to federal Parliament as Member for Bass (Tasmania), representing the Australian Labor Party (ALP). He retained the seat, once also held by his father, until resigning in mid 1975. The resignation prompted a key by-election resulting in the election of Liberal Party candidate K Newman. Barnard had also been President of the Tasmanian branch of the ALP (1966-67 and 1970-73) and, after narrowly defeating Dr Jim Cairns, was Deputy Leader of the ALP (1967-74).

In the early period of his political career, Barnard was a member of the Immigration Advisory Council (1960-70) and served on Parliamentary committees relating to Public Accounts and Audit (1956-58), New Parliament House (1965-70), Foreign Affairs (1967-69), Standing Orders (1967-72) and Defence Forces Retirement Benefits Legislation (1970-72). He also travelled widely, as a member of Parliamentary delegations or as Deputy Leader of the Opposition, to South East Asia (including Vietnam), United States, Europe and the United Kingdom.

Following the landslide ALP victory at the 1972 'It's time' election, Barnard became Deputy Prime Minister to E G (Gough) Whitlam. In the first Whitlam Ministry (5-19 December 1972), all portfolios were shared between the two, Barnard holding Labour and National Service, Immigration, Social Services, Postmaster-General, Primary Industry, Repatriation, Health, Interior, National Development, Supply, Air, Army, Navy and Defence. He subsequently retained those of Supply, Air, Army and Navy until late 1973 and Defence until mid 1975. He was also Acting Prime Minister on several occasions (1973-74), before his defeat as Deputy Prime Minister by Cairns after the 1974 election. 

After leaving federal politics, Barnard became Ambassador to Sweden, Finland and Norway (1975-78) and Director of the Office of Australian War Graves (1981-84). He was made an Officer in the Order of Australia (AO) in 1979 and died in Launceston in 1997.

Sources:

Grattan, Michelle, ed, Australian Prime Ministers (Sydney, New Holland Publishers, 2000), pp 327, 337, 343
Parliamentary Handbook 1975, pp 35-36; Supplement 1976, p 202
Who's Who in Australia 1995, p 169