Dr. Robert William Weir Carrall was born in Ontario and obtained his medical degree at McGill University. For a time he served in the Union Army during the American Civil War, then went to nanaimo where he was doctor for the coal company there. He went to Williams Creek and Barkerville in 1868.

Soon after arriving, however, Carrall was elected Cariboo representative to the Legislative Council of the colony of BC and sent to Victoria. While in Victoria he worked for confederation with Canada. He is said to have "represented the Canadian investors who had liberated the Cariboo gold fields from American domination", and who were now looking for further investments in the far west. Along with J.W. Trutch and Dr. J.S. Helmcken, he went to Ottawa in 1879 as part of BC's official delegation to discuss the terms under which B.C. possibly would become a Canadian province. A railway across Canada was promised, along with a drydock at Esquimalt, and many other financial incentives. In 1871 BC accepted the terms and became part of Canada. Dr. Carrall was appointed one of the new province's first senators.

After Carrall took his seat in the Canadian Senate, he never returned to Victoria. At the age of 40 he married a widow who was interested in politics, but he died six months later. Carrall was buried near his brother's home, "Carrall's Grove," at Woodstock, Ontario. His outstanding action as a senator was to encourage the passing of the bill, in 1879, that made July 1 Canada's national holiday. 

Barkerville is where Carrall's political career began and he is one of the people sometimes portrayed there during street theatre performances when lively debates about the pros and cons of Confederation are re-enacted.