Robert Wardlaw was a Liberal Party Senator for Tasmania from 1953-1962. Wardlaw was born in Avoca, Tasmania to parents, farmer and Butcher James Bennett Wardlaw, and Dora Dove, nee Miller. One of seven siblings, Robert moved with his widowed mother and siblings to Scottsdale in 1906. Robert worked in a drapers shop in Sydney before joining the Light Horse in World War I. Returning to Tasmanian in 1920, Robert joined his brother Thomas in running several general stores under the name 'Wardlaw Bros Pty Ltd'. Robert married Jessica Maude Greatrex in 1923. He was president of the Tasmanian Farmers' Federation (1949-51), a member of the north-east Tasmanian War Agricultural Committee (1939-45), chairman of the Tasmanian Rural Industries Board (1951-53), a member of the Federal Rural Committee, a founding director of the Farmers' and Graziers' Co-operative Society, and president of the Returned Services League at Ringarooma. Wardlaw joined the Senate in May 1953 following a casual vacancy caused by the death of Senator Chamberlain, whose term was to expire in 1956. He was re-elected in 1955. Wardlaw visited London in 1961 as a member of a parliamentary delegation to the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association conference. Wardlaw did not contest the federal election in December 1961. Wardlaw died in Launceston in 1964.