Robert Samuel Bawlf (June 7, 1944 – August 20, 2016) was a Canadian politician and author.

In 1972, Bawlf was elected to Victoria City Council, the youngest person ever to have been so.^[1] In 1975, he was elected to the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia for the riding of Victoria as a member of the Social Credit Party. He was soon appointed Minister of Recreation and Conservation by Premier Bill Bennett. As minister, he oversaw the enactment of B.C.’s first Heritage Conservation Act. He subsequently served as Minister of Deregulation. He was defeated in the 1979 general election.^[2]

Bawlf's book, The Secret Journey of Sir Francis Drake, was published in 2003 and has sold more than 20,000 copies. In it he challenged the conventional historical wisdom that fellow British explorer James Cook was the first European to visit the B.C. coast when he sailed into Nootka Sound in 1778 ^[1]

He died of cancer on August 20, 2016.^[3]