Charles Chree (5 May 1860 – 12 August 1928) was a British physicist.
He was born in Lintrathen, Forfarshire, Scotland and educated at the Grammar School, Old Aberdeen, the University of Aberdeen where he graduated MA in 1879 and the University of Cambridge (MA, 1883). He was appointed Superintendent of Kew Observatory.
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1897, his candidacy citation listing his achievements as: "Author of the following memoirs, and of many others on analogous subjects - 1. Effects of pressure on the Magnetisation of Cobalt, Phil Trans: 1890 2. Conduction of heat in liquids, Proc: R. Soc: 1887. 3. Stresses and strains in isotropic, elastic, solid ellipsoids, etc, Proc: R. Soc: 1895. 4. A solution of the equations Equilibrium of elastic solids etc, etc, Camb: Phil: Trans: XV. 5. On some compound vibrating systems, Camb: Phil: Trans: XV. 6. Changes in dimensions of solids due to given systems of forces. Camb: Phil: Trans: XV. 7. The isotropic elastic sphere and spherical shell, Camb: Phil: Trans: XV. 8. Forced vibrations in isotropic, elastic, solid spheres, and spherical shells. Camb: Phil. Trans XVI. 9. Rotating, elastic, solid cylinders of elliptic section. Phil: Mag. 1892. 10. Contribution to the theory of the Robinson Cap auxmomoter. Phil: Mag: 1895. 11. Longitudinal vibrations of aeolotropic bars with one axis of material symmetry. Quar: Journ: Math: 1890. 12. Isotropic, elastic solids of nearly spherical form. Amer: Journ: Mathem: XVI".[1] He won its Hughes Medal in 1919 "for his researches in terrestrial magnetism". He served as president of the Royal Meteorological Society from 1922 to 1923.[2]
The Chree Medal and Prize of the IOP was named for him. The awards were renamed in 2008.
He died in 1928 in Sussex.