Carr was born in London to a middle-class family, and was educated at the Merchant Taylors' School in London, and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was awarded a First Class Degree in Classics in 1916 [REF].
Carr described the atmosphere at the Merchant Taylors School as: "..95% of my school fellows came from orthodox Conservative homes, and regarded Lloyd George as an incarnation of the devil.