Rattray was born in
Johannesburg, matriculated from the
St. Alban's College in
Pretoria, and studied
entomology (the study of insects) at the
University of Natal,
Pietermaritzburg, where he graduated in 1982. From 1983 to 1988 he managed the
Mala Mala Game Reserve situated on the doorstep of
Kruger National Park. In 1989 he and his family moved to their family farm at
Rorke's Drift, where the Battle of
Isandlwana and Battle of Rorke's Drift took place between the
Zulus and
British soldiers. He and his wife, Nicky, established and operated the Fugitives' Drift Lodge. He gained considerable knowledge about the conflicts between the Zulus and British in South Africa as a child as he accompanied his father, an amateur historian himself, as he interviewed Zulus in the local community to obtain their accounts of the conflict, some of whose forebears had fought in those wars. He provided tours of the historic battle sites of Isandlwana and Rorke's Drift, and his tours are estimated to have been attended by more than 60 000 visitors. He was a fellow of the
Royal Geographical Society in
London, and his annual lectures there are reported to have been always well attended. Rattray, aged 48, was shot dead on his farm in
KwaZulu-Natal on 26 January 2007 during an armed robbery attempt by six men. His funeral was held at
Michaelhouse, a boarding school in
Balgowan where two of his sons were scholars at the time, and his ashes are interred on the family property at Rorke's Drift in the Natal Midlands. Five of the gang, including the murderer, were subsequently arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment. ==References==