Francis Graham Smith was born in Roehampton, Surrey, on 25 April 1923, and educated at Downing College, Cambridge. He worked at the Telecommunications Research Establishment at Malvern during the Second World War before returning to Cambridge to complete his studies. On graduating he joined the radio research department at the Cavendish Laboratory, where he worked with Martin Ryle on radio wave emissions from the sun. From 1952 to 1952 he was employed at the Carnegie Institute in Washington D.C. He became Professor of Astronomy at Manchester in 1964, and worked at Jodrell Bank on radio astronomy until 1974. He was Director of the Royal Greenwich Observatory, 1976-1981, and during this time helped to establish the Northern Hemisphere Observatory at La Palma in the Canary Islands. Smith became Director of Jodrell Bank in 1981, and was Astronomer Royal, 1982-1990. He was subsequently emeritus professor at Manchester.