Mrs Barnard

In the novel The A.B.C. Murders, Mrs Barnard is the mother of Betty Barnard, the waitress from Bexhill-on-Sea who was the second murder victim. She and Mr Barnard live in a minute bungalow named Llandudno. This name was probably chosen because Mrs Barnard is of Welsh origin.

When Inspector Crome, accompanied by Poirot and Hastings, arrives to interview Mr and Mrs Barnard, Mr Barnard is initially unsure whether his wife will be up to seeing them. However, she does join them. She is described as walking "with the uncertain gait of a person who had had a great shock". Her voice has a "faintly sing song intonation", which Hastings at first thinks is foreign, but later realises is due to her Welsh roots.

Mrs Barnard says that she and her husband always went to bed early, at about nine o'clock. They never knew that Betty had not come home until the police came to inform them that her body had been found.

She also says that Betty had not mentioned if she was meeting Donald Fraser on the night of the murder. She says that Betty never said much about where she was going or what she was doing, but that she was a good girl.

Megan, Mr and Mrs Barnard's older daughter, later says that her mother had bought a pair of stockings for Betty as a present, on the day of the murder. Megan found her crying over the stockings, saying that she bought them for Betty, and Betty never even saw them. Mrs Barnard had bought the stockings from a man who had come to the door selling them. She had mentioned to Megan that she felt sorry for these men who went around trying to get orders.

Portrayals
Mrs Barnard appears in the film adaptation of The A.B.C. Murders in Series 2 of ITV's Agatha Christie's Poirot, but the actress who played the part was not credited.

In the anime show ABC Murders, NHK's adaptation of The A.B.C. Murders, the character of Mrs Barnard also appears. Interestingly, although she does little more than cry, the part is credited to Ai Satô. By contract, the character of her husband has many lines but the voice actor is not credited.