Background
Carr was born on 11 November 1916, the son of Ralph Edward Carr and his wife Katie Elizabeth.
Carr was born on 11 November 1916, the son of Ralph Edward Carr and his wife Katie Elizabeth.
He was educated at Westminster School and at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. He then worked for a number of firms from 1938 onward, acting as director of the Metal Closures Group between 1964 and 1970 and as chairman of Cadbury-Schweppes PLC between 1978 and 1989.
Carr became Conservative M.P. for Mitchum in 1930 and represented it until he became M.P. for Carshalton in 1974, retaining that seat until 1976. He rose through the junior ministerial positions in the various Conservative governments of the 1950s. He became parliamentary secretary in the Ministry of Labour and National Service on 20 December 1955 and continued in that role in the governments of both Sir Anthony Eden and Harold Macmillan, until 14 April 1958.
In 1963 he was appointed secretary of state for employment but lost his post when Labour won the general election in October 1964. When Edward Heath formed his Conservative government in 1970, Carr became secretary of state for employment, then acted as Lord President of the Council and leader of the House of Commons between April and November 1972. He was then promoted to the post of home secretary, which he held until February 1974.
Carr was regarded as a “wet” (a weak political character) in the early 1970s, at a time when right-wing Conservatives were beginning to discuss denationalization and more private involvement in social welfare and less state provision.
When Margaret Thatcher became Conservative leader in 1975, she was determined to abandon some of her leading political supporters, ineluding Peter Walker, Robert Carr, Geoffrey Rippon, Paul Channon, and Nicholas Scott. Carr was not invited into Thatchers shadow cabinet and he was instead created Baron Carr of Monken Hadley in 1975. Since then he has been mainly involved in business.