Career
Educated at Woking County Grammar School, he was the star of the school"s Dramatic Society for which he played numerous Shakespearean and Goldsmithian ladies. One such production was seen by the Norwegian ambassador, who was so impressed that he invited the whole production to perform in Oslo and Bergen. Cartwright worked as Political Secretary of the Royal Arsenal Company-operative Society (Royal Australasian College of Surgeons) and served as a Greenwich borough councillor before standing for Parliament.
He unsuccessfully contested Bexley at the 1970 general election (when he lost to Edward Heath) and Bexleyheath at the February 1974 election (which he lost to Cyril Townsend).
At the October 1974 election Cartwright was elected as the Labour member for Woolwich East, replacing Christopher Mayhew who had left Labour to join the Liberal Party. Cartwright served as the Social Democratic Party"s chief whip from 1983 onwards and as its President from 1987 until the failure of the continuing Social Democratic Party in 1990.
He also served as the Social Democratic Party/Liberal Alliance"s chief defence spokesman from 1983 to 1987. After thus leaving active politics he went on to serve as Deputy Chairman of the Police Complaints Authority before retiring to Kent.