Pratten was born in Leichhardt and was educated at Abbotsholme College, Sydney Church of England Grammar School and the University of Sydney, graduating with a bachelor of science in 1923. He worked in his family's firm, Pratten Bros., and subsequently took over as managing director of the business before he first entered politics. He was a director of the Australian board of London Assurance, the Pan Australia Unit Trust and Wentworth Hotel Limited, and was secretary of the Pymble branch of the Nationalist Party.[1][2][3]
Pratten was then elected to the New South Wales Legislative Council in 1937.[2] In December 1938, he made a widely reported speech that demanded that the "inflow of foreign Jews" fleeing Adolf Hitler had to be checked to prevent "a serious problem which will undoubtedly strike at the social, economical and political nature of this State" and argued that the federal government should "ensure more rigid and scientific control of this type of immigrant".[5][6][7] In 1959, he was one of three Liberal MPs to defect to the Country Party, giving the Country Party a majority among upper house members of the conservative Coalition; it was reported that the split was due to a disagreement with the Liberal Party over policy on the abolition of the Legislative Council.[8] He served in the Legislative Council until 1976.[2]
