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.

[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.

[citation needed] 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.