[1][2] Griffiths spent his childhood in the village of Ystradgynlais near Swansea in Powys, south Wales.
He studied for a doctorate in astrophysics at University College London, working on a variable star in Cassiopeia and in infrared astronomy,[3] receiving his PhD in 1977.
From 1987 to 1991, he was Head of the Special Projects Group and during 1991 to 1995 he was responsible for the installation of a new collections management system as part of the LASSI consortium.
[8] Griffiths left the Science Museum in 2003 and then taught astronomy at the Royal Greenwich Observatory.
He lived for part of the time in El Bosque, Cádiz, southern Spain, where he set up the Griffon Educational Observatory[9] with Andy Burns and Griffith's wife, Kathy.