Founders, Fellows, Presidents and Members

Find information about the society's membership since its inception.

Founding members

On 24 October 1901, a group of 10 people met at University College, London to form a psychological society.

The names of these individuals were:

  • Robert Armstrong-Jones (CBE, MD, FRCP, FRCS physician)
  • Sophie Bryant (DSc, DLitt headmistress)
  • William Ralph Gibson Boyce (MA, DSc lecturer)
  • Frank Noel Hales (BA scholar)
  • William McDougall (MA, DSc, MD, FRS experimental psychologist)
  • Frederick Walter Mott (KBE, MD, FRCP, LLD, FRS pathologist)
  • William Halse Rivers Rivers, (MA, MD, FRS lecturer)
  • Alexander Faulkner Shand,(MA barrister)
  • William George Smith (MA, PhD lecturer)
  • James Sully (MA Professor)

In 1906 this society officially became known as The British Psychological Society.

Learn more about the Founding members of the society

Past Presidents

Here is a list of all of the BPS members who have served as President since 1920.

Where possible, we have included the text of their Presidential Address and, where appropriate, their obituary.

Note that all electronic publications downloaded from BPS websites, whether free or for a charge, are copyright of the British Psychological Society and are for personal use only. Any downloaded document may not be distributed, republished or reproduced (electronically or otherwise) without permission, other than as allowed by 'fair dealing' and 'fair use' under UK and EU copyright laws.

If you wish to republish or distribute an article downloaded from this website, or if you would like any other kind of licence, please email us.

2020-2021: Dr Hazel McLaughlin
2019-2020: David Murphy
2018-2019: Kate Bullen
2017-2018: Nicola Gale
2016-2017: Professor Peter Kinderman
2015-2016: Professor Jamie Hacker Hughes
2014-2015: Professor Dorothy Miell
2013-2014: Dr Richard Mallows
2012-2013: Dr Peter Banister
2011-2012: Dr Carole Allan

Read Carole Allan's Presidential Address

2010-2011: Dr Gerry Mulhern

Read Gerry Mulhern's Presidential Address

2009-2010: Sue Gardner

Read Sue Gardner's Presidential Address

2008-2009: Dr Elizabeth Campbell
2007-2008: Professor Pam Maras
2006-2007: Ray Miller
2005-2006: Dr Graham Powell

Read Graham Powell's Presidential Address

2004-2005: Professor Ken Brown
2003-2004: Emeritus Professor Alexander Wedderburn
2002-2003: Professor Graham Davey
2001-2002: Professor Victoria Geraldine Bruce
2000-2001: Dr Tommy MacKay
1999-2000: Patricia Frankish
1998-1999: Dr Ingrid Cecilia Lunt
1997-1998: Professor Christoper Noel Cullen
1996-1997: Margaret Valerie McAllister
1995-1996: Professor Stephen Edward Newstead
1994-1995: Professor Geoffrey Anthony Lindsay
1993-1994: Dr Ann Mary Colley
1992-1993: Professor Edgar Miller
1991-1992: Revd Dr Fraser Norman Watts
1990-1991: Professor Peter Edwin Morris
1989-1990: Professor Maurice Anthony Gale
1988-1989: Professor Anthony John Chapman
1987-1988: Profesor Lea S. Pearson
1986-1987: Dr David Legge
1985-1986: Professor RoberT Maclaughlin Farr
1984-1985: Professor Charles Ian Howarth
1983-1984: Dr Halla Beloff
1982-1983: Dr Ralph R. Hetherington
1981-1982: Professor Derek Ernest Blackman
1980-1981: Professor Kevin J. Connolly
1979-1980: Professor Peter H. Venables
1978-1979: Professor Philip Marcus Levy
1977-1978: Professor Alan Douglas Benson Clarke
1976-1977: May Alison Davidson
1975-1976: Professor Jack Tizard
1974-1975: Professor Oliver Louis Zangwill
1973-1974: Emritus Professor Brian Malzard Foss
1972-1973: Professor Max Hamilton
1971-1972: Professor Harry Kay
1970-1971: Professor Harry Gwynne Jones
1969-1970: Professor Robert John Audley
1968-1969: Boris Semeonoff
1967-1968: Professor George Seth
1966-1967: Grace Rawlings
1965-1966: Professor George Westby
1964-1965: Donald Eric Broadbent
1963-1964: Professor Arthur Summerfield
1962-1963: Professor George C. Drew
1961-1962: Professor Edwin A. Peel
1960-1961: Professor James Drever (Secundus)
1959-1960: Emeritus Professor Frederick Viggers Smith
1958-1959: Emeritus Professor Magdalen D. Vernon
1957-1958: Professor Alec Rodger
1956-1957: Dr Eric Benjamin Strauss
1955-1956: Emeritus Professor Leslie S. Hearnshaw
1954-1955: Professor Philip E. Vernon
1953-1954: Arthur Rex Knight
1952-1953: Cecil Alec Mace
1951-1952: William Brown
1950-1951: Frederic Charles Bartlett
1949-1950: Robert Henry Thouless
1948-1949: Dr Stanley J. F. Philpott
1947-1948: Charles Wilfred Valentine
1946-1947: Robert John Bartlett
1945-1946: Sir Godfrey H. Thomson
1944-1945: Dr Millais Culpin
1943-1944: Tom Hatherley Pear
1941-1943: Professor Sir Cyril Lodowic Burt
1938-1941: Professor Albert William Wolters
1935-1938: Professor James Drever (Primus)
1932-1935: Professor John Carl Flügel
1929-1932: Beatrice Edgell
1926-1929: Dr F. A. P. Aveling
1923-1926: Professor Charles Edward Spearman
1920-1923: Charles Samuel Myers

Honorary members

Between 1904 and 1945, the society inducted a number of Honorary Members.

In 1945 all surviving Honorary Members were made Honorary Fellows.

A separate category of Honorary Life Members was created in 1991.

Year of Induction

Inductee(s)
1940
  • Professor George Dumas (1866-1946)
  • Professor Beatrice Edgell (1871-1948)
  • Professor Kurt Koffka (1886-1941) 
  • Professor Carl Emil Seashore (1866-1949)
1937
  • Professor Samuel Alexander (1859-1938)
  • Sir Henry Head (1861-1940)
  • Professor Sir Charles Scott Sherrington (1857-1937)
1934
  • Dr (Henry) Havelock Ellis (1859-1939)
  • Dr (Alfred) Ernest Jones (1879-1958)
  • Professor Felix Krueger (1874-1948) 
  • Professor William McDougall (1871-1938)
  • Professor Conwy Lloyd Morgan (1852-1936)
  • Professor Charles Samuel Myers (1873-1946)
  • Mr Alexander Faulkner Shand (1858-1936) 
  • Professor Charles Edward Spearman (1863-1945) 
  • Professor George Frederick William Stout (1860-1944)
1932
  • Professor James Rowland Angell (1869-1949) 
  • Professor James McKeen Cattell (1860-1944) 
  • Professor Sante de Sanctis (1862-1935) 
  • Professor (Louis) Wilhelm Stern (1871-1938)
  • 1928Professor Mary Whiton Calkins (1863-1930)
  • 1927Baron Albert Eduard Michotte van den Berck  (1881-1965)
1926
  • Professor Edward Claparède (1873-1940) 
  • Professor Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
  • Professor Gerardus Heymans (1857-1930) 
  • Professor Pierre Janet (1859-1947) 
  • Professor Henri Piéron (1881-1964) 
  • Professor Edward Lee Thorndike (1874-1949) 
  • Professor Edward Bradford Titchener (1867-1927
  • Professor Hendrick Zwaardemaker (1857-1930)
1912
  • Professor Franz Brentano (1836-1917) 
  • Professor James Ward (1839-1917)
  • 1911Professor Oswald Külpe (1862-1915)
  • 1910Professor James Sully (1842-1923)
1905
  • Professor Harald Höffding (1843-1931)
  • Sir Francis Galton (1822-1911)
  • Professor William James (1842-1910)
  • Professor George Elias Müller (1850-1934) 
  • Professor Théodule Armand Ribot (1839-1916) 
  • Professor Carl Stumpf (1848-1936)
1904
  • Dr John Hughlings-Jackson (1835-1911)

Honorary Fellows

All surviving Honorary Members were made Honorary Fellows in 1945.

The following is a complete list of all the additional Honorary Fellows inducted since then.

Year of Induction

Inductee(s)
2020
  • Professor Jonathan A. Smith
2019
  • Michael Berger 
  • Martin Fisher 
  • Nicola Gale 
  • Ray Miller 
  • Jill Wilkinson 
2018
  • Anne Colley
2017
  • Professor Carolyn Kagan 
  • Professor Michael Murray  
  • Mr John Oates 
2016
  • Professor Erica Burman
  • Professor Wendy Holloway
2014
  • Professor Dorothy Bishop
2013
  • Dr Sathasivan (Saths) Cooper
2012
  • Professor Dianne Berry
  • Professor David Farrington
  • Professor Glyn Humphreys (1954-2016)
  • Professor Annette Karmiloff-Smith (1938-2016)
  • Professor Peter Saville (1946-2022)
2011
  • Professor Marie Johnston
  • Professor James Orford
  • Professor John Weinman
2010
  • Professor Raymond Henry Charles Bull
  • Professor Cary Lynn Cooper
2009
  • Professor David M. Clark
2008
  • Professor David Victor Canter
2007
  • Professor Alan D.B. Clarke (1922-2011)
  • Professor Anne M. Clarke (1928-2015)
  • Professor Hannah Steinberg (1926-2019)
2006
  • Professor Uta Frith
  • Professor William Yule
  • Professor Glynis M. Breakwell
2005
  • Professor Andrew William Young
2003
  • Professor Miles R.C. Hewstone

2001

  • Professor Maurice Anthony Gale (1937-2006)
2000
  • Professor Richard L. Gregory (1923-2010)
1999
  • Professor Antony John Chapman
1998
  • Professor Heinz Rudolph Schaffer (1926-2008)
1997
  • Professor Victoria Bruce
  • Professor John Morton
  • Professor Peter B. Warr
1995
  • Professor Alan D. Baddeley
  • Professor Patrick Rabbitt
1994
  • Professor Ulric Neisser (1928-2012)
  • Professor Freda Gladys Newcombe (1925-2001)
1993
  • Professor Margaret Caldwell Donaldson (1926-2020)
  • Professor Klaus Werner Wedell
1992
  • Professor Michael Argyle (1925-2002)
1991
  • Professor Elizabeth F. Loftus
1990
  • Jack Gale Wilmot Davies (1911-1992)
1989
  • Professor George Armitage Miller (1920-2012)
1988
  • Professor Herbert Alexander Simon (1916-2001)
1986
  • Donald Eric Broadbent (1926-1993)
1985
  • Professor Noam Chomsky
1984
  • Professor Jerome Seymour Bruner (1915-2016)
1982
  • Professor Oliver L. Zangwill (1913-1987)
1981
  • Professor Robert Hinde (1923-2016)
1979
  • Professor Sir Desmond Pond (1919-1986)
1978
  • Professor Sir Michael Rutter (1933-2021)
  • Professor Philip Ewart Vernon (1905-1987)
1977
  • Professor James Jerome Gibson (1904-1979) 
  • Professor Eleanor J. Gibson (1910-2002)
1974
  • Dr Michael Fordham (1905-1995)
1972
  • Professor Raymond Bernard Cattell (1905-1998) 
  • Professor Harry Frederick Harlow (1905-1981) 
  • Dr Henry Alexander Murray (1893-1988)
1970
  • Dr Edward George Glover (1882-1972)
  • Rt Hon. Lord John Anthony Hardinge Giffard (1908-2000)
  • Professor Margaret Dorothea Vernon (1901-1999)
1968
  • Professor Neal Elgar Miller (1909-2002)
  • Professor Erwin Stengel (1902-1973)
1967
  • Professor Lionel Sharples Penrose (1898-1972)
1966
  • Professor Sir Aubrey Julian Lewis (1900-1975)
  • Dr Robert Robertson Rusk (1879-1972)
  • Professor Sir Fred Joyce Schonell (1900-1969)
1965
  • Miss Anna Freud (1895-1982)
  • Professor Cecil Alec Mace (1894-1971)
1963
  • Professor Otto Klineberg (1899-1992) 
  • Mr Robert John Bartlett (1879-1980)
1962
  • Professor George William Humphrey (1889-1966)
  • Professor Burrhus Frederic Skinner (1904-1990)
  • Dr Robert Henry Thouless (1894-1984)
1961
  • Rt Hon. Lord Walter Russell Brain of Eynsham (1895-1966)
1960
  • Professor Ernst Ropiequet Hilgard (1904-2001) 
  • Professor Roger Wolcott Russell (1914-1998)
1959
  • Rt Hon. Lord Henry Cohen of Birkenhead (1900-1977)
1958
  • Dr May Smith (1879-1968)
  • Mrs Melanie Klein (1882-1960)
  • Professor Agostino Edoardo Gemelli (1878-1960)
  • Professor Alexander Rom Luria (1902-1977) 
  • Professor Tom Hatherley Pear (1886-1972) 
  • Professor Charles Wilfred Valentine (1879-1964)
  • Professor Henry Tasman Lovell (1875-1959)
1955
  • Professor Albert William Phillip Wolters (1883-1961)
1954
  • Rt Hon. Lord Edgar Douglas Adrian of Cambridge (1889-1977)
  • Professor Edward Chace Tolman (1886-1959)
  • Professor Robert Sessions Woodworth (1869-1962) 
  • Professor Jean Piaget (1896-1980) 
  • Professor Edwin Garrigues Boring (1886-1968)
  • Professor Sir Cyril Lodowic Burt (1883-1971)
  • Professor Sir Frederic Charles Bartlett (1886-1969)
  • Professor Donald Olding Hebb (1904-1985) 
  • Professor Ernst Kretschmer (1888-1964)
1952
  • Professor Sir Thomas Hunter (1876-1953)
1950
  • Professor Gordon Willard Allport (1897-1967) 
  • Professor Clark Leonard Hull (1884-1952) 
  • Professor David Katz (1884-1953) 
  • Professor Wolfgang Köhler (1887-1967) 
  • Professor Karl Spencer Lashley (1890-1958) 
  • Professor Gardner Murphy (1895-1979) 
  • Professor Lewis Madison Terman (1877-1956) 
  • Professor Louis Leon Thurstone (1887-1955)
1946
  • Professor Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) 
  • Professor Sir William Mitchell (1861-1962)