Alan Rattray

Alan MacKenzie Rattray was a lyricist, composer and arranger of music. Born in Concord, Sydney in 1878, Rattray was the son of pioneer capitalists George Allan and Catherine (Beames) Rattray. Rattray was a prolific lyricist and arranger, often collaborating with fellow Australian composers Edward Henry Tyrrell and Louis L. Howarde. Rattray is best known for the song “Boy in the Sailor Cap” which was the subject of a copyright claim He survived a shipwreck while on tour to India. Rattray was critical of Australian war time rationing, writing poetical polemics in the papers of the time. He died of pneumonic influenza at a temporary emergency hospital within the grounds of the Royal Agricultural Society in Moore Park, Sydney during the 1919 Spanish Flu pandemic. Works * Boy in the Sailor Cap * The Old Gum Tree performed most famously by Marie Eaton. * On the Briny * Jack Tar * 1908 Pansy Leaf * Somebody’s Sweetheart * My Black Canary * She’s somebody’s sweetheart still – words by Alan M. Rattray; the music by Alan M. Rattray & Clarence Vaughan * Oh! Angeline! – written by Alan M. Rattray; music by Clarence Vaughan * What would be a paradise to me – words by Alan M. Rattray; music by A