Frederick John Marrian Stratton FRS[1] (16 October 1881 – 2 September 1960) was a British astrophysicist and Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Cambridge from 1928 to 1947.
He was born in Birmingham and graduated in 1904 from Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.
After a few years as mathematical lecturer at Cambridge he became Assistant Director of the Solar Physics Observatory from 1913 to 1919, then Tutor at Caius College from 1919 to 1928 and finally Professor of Astrophysics and Director of the Solar Physics Observatory (Director of the Combined Observatories after the amalgamation in 1946 with the Cambridge Observatory) from 1928 to 1947. He also wrote the main historical account of the Cambridge Observatories.[2] During WWI (1914–1918) he served in the British Army and was awarded a DSO and Légion d'Honneur.
He was president of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1933-35. In 1947 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.[1][3]
He died in Cambridge in 1960. He never married.