The History of Psychology Centre works diligently to compile and retain records of the society's membership since its inception.
Founders, Fellows, Presidents, and Members
This includes compiling information about the society's founders, its presidents, and the various honorary fellows and members who have been part of the organisation over the years.
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.
Here is a list of all of the BPS members who have served as President since 1920.
Where possible we have also included links to the text of their Presidential Address and, where appropriate, their obituary.
Please note that all electronic publications downloaded from BPS websites, whether free of 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 [email protected].
2020-2021 | Dr Hazel McLaughlin |
2019-2020 |
David Murphy Presidential Address: "What Improv, Ubuntu, and Covid-19 have taught me about leadership" |
2018-2019 | Kate Bullen |
2017-2018 | Nicola Gale |
2016-2017 |
Professor Peter Kinderman Presidential Address: "Psychology is Action, Not Thinking About Oneself" |
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 |
2010-2011 |
Dr Gerry Mulhern Presidential Address: "THe BPS at 110: Legacy, Trends, and Back to the Future" |
2009-2010 |
Sue Gardner |
2008-2009 |
Dr Elizabeth Campbell |
2007-2008 |
Professor Pam Maras Presidential Address: "Taking Psychology to Society: Addressing Anti-Social Behaviour and Raising Achievement" (Lecture Unavailable) |
2006-2007 |
Ray Miller |
2005-2006 |
Dr Graham Powell Presidential Address: "Psychology, the Law, and Capacity to Manage Financial Affairs" |
2004-2005 |
Professor Ken Brown Presidential Address: "The Enemy Within: Threats to the Society and the Discipline of Psychology" (Lecture Unavailable) |
2003-2004 |
Emeritus Professor Alexander Wedderburn Presidential Address: "Shiftworkers: A Minority That Can Be Helped" |
2002-2003 |
Professor Graham Davey Presidential Address: "Doing Clinical Psychology Research: What Is Interesting Isn't Always Useful" |
2001-2002 |
Professor Victoria Geraldine Bruce |
2000-2001 |
Dr Tommy MacKay |
1999-2000 |
Patricia Frankish Presidential Address: "Thought and Feeling: You Can't Have One Without the Other" |
1998-1999 |
Dr Ingrid Cecilia Lunt Presidential Address: "Unity Through Diversity: An Achievable Goal" |
1997-1998 |
Professor Christoper Noel Cullen |
1996-1997 |
Margaret Valerie McAllister |
1995-1996 |
Professor Stephen Edward Newstead Presidential Address: "The Psychology of Student Assessment" |
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 Presidential Address: "Assessing Research: Citation Count Shortcomings" |
1987-1988 |
Profesor Lea S. Pearson |
1986-1987 |
Dr David Legge |
1985-1986 |
Professor Robery Maclaughlin Farr Presidential Address: "The Science of Mental Life: A Social Psychological Perspective" |
1984-1985 |
Professor Charles Ian Howarth Presidential Address: "Howarth's Laws: A Lighthearted Look at the Current State of Psychology" (Lecture Unavailable) |
1983-1984 |
Dr Halla Beloff Presidential Address: "A Social Psychologist in the Camera Culture" |
1982-1983 |
Dr Ralph R. Hetherington |
1981-1982 |
Professor Derek Ernest Blackman Presidential Address: "Psychologists and the Community: Influence and Counter-Culture" |
1980-1981 |
Professor Kevin J. Connolly |
1979-1980 |
Professor Peter H. Venables Presidential Address: "Psychology, Physiology, and Psychophysiology" (Lecture Unavailabe) |
1978-1979 |
Professor Philip Marcus Levy Presidential Address: "On the Relation Between Method and Substance in Psychology" |
1977-1978 |
Professor Alan Douglas Benson Clarke Presidential Address: "Predicting Human Development: Problems, Evidence, and Implications" |
1976-1977 |
May Alison Davidson Presidential Address: "The Scientific/Applied Debate in Psychology: A Contribution" |
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 Presidential Address: "In Search of an Idiographic Psychology" |
1969-1970 |
Professor Robert John Audley |
1968-1969 |
Boris Semeonoff Presidential Address: "Changing Horizons: An Essay in Autobiography" |
1967-1968 |
Professor George Seth |
1966-1967 |
Grace Rawlings |
1965-1966 |
Professor George Westby Presidential Address: "Psychology Today: Problems and Directions" |
1964-1965 |
Donald Eric Broadbent Presidential Address: "Perceptual Defence and the Engineering Psychologist" |
1963-1964 |
Professor Arthur Summerfield Presidential Address: "Codes and Plans and Organised Behaviour" |
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 Presidential Address: "Psychologists: Non-Medical and Medical" |
1956-1957 |
Dr Eric Benjamin Strauss |
1955-1956 |
Emeritus Professor Leslie S. Hearnshaw |
1954-1955 |
Professor Philip E. Vernon |
1953-1954 |
Arthur Rex Knight Presidential Address: "The British Psychological Society: Problems and Prospects" |
1952-1953 |
Cecil Alec Mace Presidential Address: "A Psychologist's Approach to the Theory of Values" |
1951-1952 |
William Brown "Mind, Medicine, and Mathematics" |
1950-1951 |
Frederic Charles Bartlett |
1949-1950 |
Robert Henry Thouless Presidential Address: "The Place of Theory in Experimental Psychology" |
1948-1949 |
Dr Stanley J. F. Philpott |
1947-1948 |
Charles WIlfred Valentine |
1946-1947 |
Robert John Bartlett 1879-1980 |
1945-1946 |
Sir Godfrey H. Thomson Presidential Address: "Factorial Analysis: Recent Advances and a Retrospect" |
1944-1945 |
Dr Millais Culpin "Psychology in Medicine" |
1943-1944 |
Tom Hatherley Pear Presidential Address: "Social Differences in English Education" |
1941-1943 |
Professor Sir Cyril Lodowic Burt "British Psychology in War-Time" |
1938-1941 |
Professor Albert William Wolters |
1935-1938 |
Professor James Drever (Primus) "The Status and Qualifications of Professional Psychologists" |
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 |
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 | |
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) |
1928 | Professor Mary Whiton Calkins (1863-1930) |
1927 | Baron 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) |
1911 | Professor Oswald Külpe (1862-1915) |
1910 | Professor 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) |
All surviving Honorary Members were made Honorary Fellows in 1945.
Below you will find 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) |
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) |
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) |
1967 | |
1966 |
Professor Sir Aubrey Julian Lewis (1900-1975) Dr Robert Robertson Rusk (1879-1972) Professor Sir Fred Joyce Schonell (1900-1969) |
1965 |
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) |
1961 | |
1960 |
Professor Ernst Ropiequet Hilgard (1904-2001) Professor Roger Wolcott Russell (1914-1998) |
1959 | Rt Hon. Lord Henry Cohen of Birkenhead (1900-1977) |
1958 |
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) |