Robert Wardlaw with brothers John and Andrew were soccer players during the early years of the game in the Sunshine Coast hinterland. The trio played for North Arm, the leading club of the North Coast Football Association league in its first years from 1921. Wardlaw’s form was rewarded with selection in the North Coast representative side to play Brisbane in 1921 and against the visiting New Zealand side in 1923.
Before the war the Wardlaw family was living in Coorparoo in Brisbane. It is unknown whether Wardlaw played before the war, as many of the Brisbane newspapers often listed only scores and not line-ups for most clubs during the era.
He was 22 when he enlisted in July 1915 and was allocated to the 31st Battalion. After arriving in Egypt, Wardlaw was transferred to the 5th Divisional Signals Company, which would be sent to France in June 1916. Over the next two years Wardlaw saw service in France and Belgium, before being gassed and suffering a hand wound in Amiens in April 1918. He was evacuated to England but managed to return to his unit in France before the end of the war. Here he stayed until he left for Australia from Havre in April 1919.
By the time of his return, the family had a farm in North Arm where he worked until 1929. At this point the family, including Wardlaw, John and Andrew, moved to another property near Moree in New South Wale. Wardlaw also enlisted during the Second World War where he served in Australia with the Volunteer Defence Force. He married Edith Kelton during the second war, but she died in childbirth with their daughter Ailsa, who survived. He remarried in 1950 to Mary Clyne and they remained together until Wardlaw passed away in Toowoomba in 1971, aged 77.
This biography included material published by his great niece Sue Smith at the Virtual War Memorial and checked against his military record.