In April 1965 the Science Research Council received its Royal Charter and assumed responsibility for the support of major aspects of scientific research in the UK. This paper is primarily concerned with the consequent termination of the responsibility of the Royal Society for the Royal Greenwich Observatory and the subsequent cessation of the historic association of the Astronomer Royal with the Observatory. The Observatory was founded by King Charles II in 1675: see figure 1. The King’s advisers included Sir Jonas Moore, Surveyor-General of the Ordnance, who enlisted the help of John Flamsteed, a self-taught astronomer. The King appointed Flamsteed ‘our astronomical observator’ and through the historical accident that Moore was Flamsteed’s patron the Observatory came under the control of the Board of Ordnance. Although a number of Fellows of the Royal Society were involved in the recommendations for the founding of the Observatory, the Society had no formal responsibility for the Observatory or its work during the first 35 years of its existence. During those years Flamsteed’s relations with his contemporaries deteriorated, and the disputes, involving Halley and Newton, over the publication of his results, contributed to the issue of Queen Anne’s Warrant of 1710. By this Warrant the President of the Royal Society and other Fellows of the Society were appointed to serve as Visitors to the Observatory.