Pratt was educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford, where he read modern history and was secretary of the Gridiron, a lunch and dining club founded in 1884.
[2] He sustained severe injuries as a passenger in a road accident while an undergraduate, and sat his exams with a broken back, graduating with a second class degree.
[3] His obituaries variously describe him as a "brainy buffoon",[4] "Wodehouseian",[2] "unusual and abrasive",[1] "jolly, boisterous and odd",[1] and a "wildly self-indulgent eccentric",[1] with an unmistakable physical appearance, often wearing a three-piece suit with capri pants, pink or purple socks and highly polished co-respondent shoes, topped by an untidy hat.
[4] A scathing anonymous obituary published in The Daily Telegraph on 8 September 2007 described him as "an unabashed snob and social interloper on a grand scale".
It criticised him for outstaying his welcome as a house guest and failing to contribute to the cost of the lavish, over-engineered turbo kits he was famous for commissioning, and for "regaling listeners with stories of family matters".