Francis Graham-Smith

Sir Francis Graham-Smith Template:Post-nominals (25 April 1923 – 20 June 2025) was a British astronomer. He was the 13th Astronomer Royal from 1982 to 1990 and was knighted in 1986.<ref name="royalsociety">Template:Cite web</ref> <ref>Scienceworld biography</ref><ref>Online catalogue of F. Graham Smith's working papers as director of the Royal Greenwich Observatory (held at Cambridge University Library)</ref>

Early life and education

Graham-Smith was born on 25 April 1923. He was educated at Rossall School,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and Downing College, Cambridge from 1941.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Career and research

In the late 1940s, Graham-Smith worked at the University of Cambridge on the Long Michelson Interferometer.

In 1964, he was appointed Professor of Radio Astronomy the University of Manchester and in 1981 director of the Nuffield Radio Astronomy Laboratories, part of the University of Manchester at Jodrell Bank. He was also Director of the Royal Greenwich Observatory from 1975 to 1981.

He appeared in Episode 13 of Series 4 of Treasure Hunt when the show visited Jodrell Bank, giving presenter Anneka Rice a piggyback to allow her to reach a clue.<ref>Template:CitationTemplate:CbignoreTemplate:Dead YouTube link</ref> His doctoral students included Andrew Lyne.<ref name=phd/> His published work includes

• (with J.H. Thompson): Optics (J. Wiley, 1971)<ref>Internet archive</ref>
• (with Bernard Lovell): Pathways to the Universe (Cambridge, 1989)<ref>Cambridge University Press</ref>
• (with Andrew Lyne): Pulsar Astronomy (Cambridge, 1990)<ref>Cambridge University Press</ref>
• (with Bernard F. Burke and Peter N. Wilkinson): An Introduction to Radio Astronomy (Cambridge, 1997)<ref>Cambridge University Press</ref>
• Unseen Cosmos (Oxford, 2013)<ref>Oxford University Press</ref>
• Eyes on the Sky: A Spectrum of Telescopes (Oxford, 2016)<ref>Oxford University Press</ref>

Personal life and death

Graham-Smith was an avid bee-keeper and kept up this hobby well into his 90s, looking after the hives at Jodrell Bank. He also inspired the creation of the St Andrews Amateur Beekeeping Society.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

He lived with his wife Elizabeth in the Old School House in Henbury, Cheshire, from 1981 until her death in 2021. They had met when they were both working with Martin Ryle in 1945–6 in Cambridge in the early days of radio astronomy.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Graham-Smith was a Patron of Humanists UK<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> was the President of Macclesfield Astronomical Society and was a patron of Mansfield and Sutton Astronomical Society.

Graham-Smith celebrated his 100th birthday on 25 April 2023,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and died on 20 June 2025, at the age of 102.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Awards and honours

Graham-Smith's awards and honours include:

• elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1970<ref name="royalsociety" /> and was awarded their Royal Medal in 1987
• served as president of the Royal Astronomical Society from 1975 to 1977
• served as the thirteenth Astronomer Royal from 1982 to 1990
• Awarded the Richard Glazebrook Medal and Prize in 1991

In 1965, he was invited to co-deliver the Royal Institution Christmas Lecture on Exploration of the Universe.