The Carritt family
Clockwise from top left:
CountryUnited Kingdom
Current regionOxfordshire
Place of originBoars Hill, Oxfordshire
Current headColin Carritt
MembersAnthony Carritt

Edgar Frederick Carritt
Michael Carritt
Liesel Carritt
Noel Carritt
Colin Carritt
Brian Carritt
Bill Carritt

Winifred Carritt
TraditionsCommunist and left-wing political activism

The Carritt family is an English political family based in Oxford, known for its involvement in anti-fascist activism, Marxist politics, and academic achievements within Oxford University. For much of the 20th century, the involvement of the family revolved around the Communist Party of Great Britain, as various members have traditionally been members of the British communist movement and have served as notable anti-fascist and anti-colonial activists, spies, philosophers, professors, politicians, newspaper editors, and revolutionaries.

The Carritt family's home in Boars Hill became known as a hub for left-wing intellectual debate, attracting a wide number of people including communist trade union leader Abraham Lazarus, multiple Labour Party politicians including Dick Crossman, the novelist Iris Murdoch,[1] and numerous poets including WH Auden[2] and Stephen Spender.[3] The Carritt family were also friends with another family of left-wing activists which lived close to them called the Thompsons, whose members included the historian E. P. Thompson and his brother Frank Thompson.[1] The children of both families attended Dragon School together.[4]

During the early 1930s, the family welcomed and financially supported Jewish refugees arriving in Oxford following the rise of Nazi Germany. Some Carritts also agreed to enter into marriage of conveniences to stop Jewish refugees from being forcefully deported back to Nazi Germany. One of these refugees who married into the Carritt family was the communist revolutionary Liesel Carritt, whose father was the former editor of Weimar Germany's main liberal newspaper the Frankfurter Zeitung.[1]

Three members of the family, Noel Carritt, Anthony Carritt, and Liesel Carritt, all joined the International Brigades and fought battles against fascist forces during the Spanish Civil War. After Anthony was reported as missing, Noel spent days searching for him before being forced to conclude that he had been killed by fascist forces.

Colin Carritt led the successful campaign to create and erect the Oxford Spanish Civil War memorial in 2017, the first-ever memorial to the Spanish Civil War ever erected in Oxford.[5]

Notable members

  • Anthony Carritt – Member of the International Brigades, died while fighting against fascist forces alongside his brother Noel Carritt and sister-in-law Liesel Carritt.[6]
  • Noel Carritt – Communist revolutionary and member of the International Brigades, revolutionary, teacher, trade union leader, and ambulance driver during the Spanish Civil War.[6]
  • Liesel Carritt – Communist revolutionary and German-Jewish refugee who married into the Carritt family to avoid being deported to Nazi Germany, later fought for the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War.[6]
  • Michael Carritt – Communist activist and university lecturer at Queen's College and the University of Brighton, spied for Indian republicans during the British occupation of India, and campaigned for those involved in the Drigh Road RAF Mutiny.[7]
  • Edgar Frederick Carritt – English philosopher and an Oxford University professor based in University College.
  • Bill (Gabriel) Carritt – Communist activist and Christ Church scholar and university lecturer, campaigner for the Scottsboro Boys, was tried and found guilty at the Old Bailey in 1946 of leading a campaign to illegally house homeless families in luxury flats following WWII.[8]
  • Brian Carritt – Communist activist, known for helping hunger marchers during his time at Eton College, and was friends with Olympic gold medalist and anti-fascist revolutionary Lewis Clive.
  • Winfred Carritt – Communist activist who helped to shelter refugees who fled the Spanish Civil War.
  • Colin Carritt – Leader of a successful campaign to build Oxford's first memorial to the Spanish Civil War, the result of which was the Oxford Spanish Civil War memorial.[5]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Meddick, Simon; Payne, Liz; Katz, Phil (2020). Red Lives: Communists and the Struggle for Socialism. United Kingdom: Manifesto Press Cooperative Limited. p. 28. ISBN 978-1-907464-45-4.
  2. ↑ Farman, Chris; Rose, Valery; Woolley, Liz (2015). No Other Way: Oxfordshire and the Spanish Civil War 1936-39. UK: Oxford International Brigade Memorial Committee. p. 55. ISBN 9781 910448 052.
  3. ↑ Meddick, Simon; Payne, Liz; Katz, Phil (2020). Red Lives: Communists and the Struggle for Socialism. United Kingdom: Manifesto Press Cooperative Limited. p. 27. ISBN 978-1-907464-45-4.
  4. ↑ Farman, Chris; Rose, Valery; Woolley, Liz (2015). No Other Way: Oxfordshire and the Spanish Civil War 1936-39. UK: Oxford International Brigade Memorial Committee. pp. 55–56. ISBN 9781 910448 052.
  5. 1 2 "First Person: Honouring the fight against fascism". Oxford Mail. 18 February 2016. Retrieved 12 November 2022.
  6. 1 2 3 "Brief biographies of each of the known volunteers with significant connections to Oxfordshire" (PDF). Oxford International Brigade Memorial Committee. Retrieved 12 November 2022.
  7. ↑ Stevenson, Graham. "Carritt Michael". Encyclopedia of Communist Biographies. Retrieved 12 November 2022.
  8. ↑ Stevenson, Graham (2008). "Carritt Bill". Encyclopedia of Communist Biographies. Retrieved 12 November 2022.
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