David Rattray

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David Grey Rattray (September 6, 1958 in Johannesburg - January 26, 2007) was a well-known historian and tour guide of the 1879 Anglo-Zulu war in South Africa.

Rattray studied at the St Alban's College in Pretoria and entomology at the University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, where he graduated in 1982. However, he gained considerable knowledge about the conflicts between the Zulus and British in South Africa as a child as he accompanied his father, a keen amateur historian himself, as he interviewed Zulus in the local community to obtain their accounts of the conflict, some of whose forbears had fought in those wars.

He provided tours of the 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.

He was shot dead on his farm in KwaZulu-Natal in circumstances that are (as of Feb 2007) under investigation by the South African police.

[edit] External links

• Obituary in The Economist, 8 February 2007
• Obituary in The Guardian, 31 January 2007
• Obituary in The Independent, 29 January 2007