William Sadler Franks (26 April 1851 in Newark, Nottinghamshire – 19 June 1935 in East Grinstead[1]) was a British astronomer.
[2][3][4] Franks was elected to the Royal Astronomical Society on 9 January 1880.
[5] From 1890 to 1894 he directed the British Astronomical Association’s Star Colour Section.
Franks was employed between 1892 and 1904 by the wealthy amateur astronomer Isaac Roberts as an assistant to support the photographic observations of star clusters and nebulae at Roberts's private observatory at Crowborough in Sussex.
In 1923 he won the Jackson-Gwilt Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society.