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.
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.
2024-2026 Roman Raczka
2022-2024: Nicky Hayes
2021-2022: Katherine Carpenter
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
- Read Robert Bartlett's Presidential Address
- RIP (1879-1980)
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
Elected 1946–present
All surviving Honorary Members became Honorary Fellows in 1945.
ODNB indicates a link to an index entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (full articles available with individual or institutional subscription, or access through public library membership.
Year of election
2023
- Lucy Johnstone
2021
- Stephen Reicher
2020
- Johnathan Smith
2019
- Kate Bullen
2017
- Professor Carolyn Kagan
- Professor Peter Michael Murray
- Mr John Oates
2016
- Professor Erica Burman (b.1960)
- Professor Wendy Holloway
2014
- Professor Dorothy Bishop (b.1952)
2013
- Dr Sathasivan (Saths) Cooper (b.1950) [South Africa]
2012
- Professor Dianne Berry (b.1955)
- Professor David Farrington (b.1944)
- Professor Glyn Humphreys (1954–2016)
- Professor Annette Karmiloff-Smith (1938–2016)
- Professor Peter Saville (b.1946)
2011
- John Weinman
- James Orford
2010
- Professor Raymond Henry Charles Bull (b.1947)
- Professor Cary Lynn Cooper (b.1940)
2009
- Professor David M. Clark (b.1954)
2008
- Professor David Victor Canter (b.1944)
2007
- Professor Alan D.B. Clarke (1922–2011)
- Professor Anne M. Clarke (b.1928)
- Professor Hannah Steinberg (1924-2019)
2006
- Professor Uta Frith (b.1941)
- Professor William Yule (b.1940)
- Professor Glynis M. Breakwell (b.1952)
2005
- Professor Andrew William Young (b.1950)
2003
- Professor Miles R.C. Hewstone (b.1956)
2001
- Professor Maurice Anthony Gale (1937–2006)
2000
- Professor Richard L. Gregory (1923–2010) ODNB
1999
- Professor Antony John Chapman (b.1947)
1998
- Professor Heinz Rudolph Schaffer (1926–2008)
1997
- Professor Victoria Bruce (b.1953)
- Professor John Morton (b.1933)
- Professor Peter B. Warr (b.1937)
1995
- Professor Alan D. Baddeley (b.1934)
- Professor Patrick Rabbitt (b.1934)
1994
- Professor Ulric Neisser (1928–2012) [American]
- Professor Freda Gladys Newcombe (1925–2001)
1993
- Professor Margaret Caldwell Donaldson (b.1926)
- Professor Klaus Werner Wedell (b.1931)
1992
- Professor Michael Argyle (1925–2002) ODNB
1991
- Professor Elizabeth F. Loftus (b.1944) [American]
1990
- Jack Gale Wilmot Davies (1911–1992)
1989
- Professor George Armitage Miller (1920–2012) [American]
1988
- Professor Herbert Alexander Simon (1916–2001) [American]
1986
- Donald Eric Broadbent (1926–1993) ODNB
1985
- Professor Noam Chomsky (b.1928) [American]
1984
- Professor Jerome Seymour Bruner (1915–2016) [American]
1982
- Professor Oliver L. Zangwill (1913–1987) ODNB
1981
- Professor Robert Aubrey Hinde (1923–2016)
1979
- Professor Sir Desmond Pond (1919–1986) ODNB
1978
- Professor Sir Michael Rutter (b.1933)
- Professor Philip Ewart Vernon (1905–1987) ODNB
1977
- Professor James Jerome Gibson (1904–1979) [American]
- Professor Eleanor J. Gibson (1910–2002) [American]
1974
- Dr Michael Fordham (1905–1995)
1972
- Professor Raymond Bernard Cattell (1905–1998)
- Professor Harry Frederick Harlow (1905–1981) [American]
- Dr Henry Alexander Murray (1893–1988) [American]
1970
- Dr Edward George Glover (1882-1972) ODNB
- Rt Hon. Lord John Anthony Hardinge Giffard, Earl of Halsbury (1908–2000) ODNB
- Professor Margaret Dorothea Vernon (1901–1999)
1968
- Professor Neal Elgar Miller (1909–2002) [American]
- Professor Erwin Stengel (1902-1973) ODNB [Austrian British]
1967
- Professor Lionel Sharples Penrose (1898–1972) ODNB
1966
- Professor Sir Aubrey Julian Lewis (1900–1975) ODNB
- Dr Robert Robertson Rusk (1879–1972)
- Professor Sir Fred Joyce Schonell (1900–1969)
1965
- Miss Anna Freud (1895–1982) ODNB
- Professor Cecil Alec Mace (1894–1971)
1963
- Professor Otto Klineberg (1899–1992) [Canadian]
- Mr Robert John Bartlett (1879–1980)
1962
- Professor George William Humphrey (1889–1966)
- Professor Burrhus Frederic Skinner (1904–1990) [American]
- Dr Robert Henry Thouless (1894–1984) ODNB
1961
- Rt Hon. Lord Walter Russell Brain of Eynsham (1895–1966) ODNB
1960
- Professor Ernst Ropiequet Hilgard (1904–2001) [American]
- Professor Roger Wolcott Russell (1914–1998) [American]
1959
- Rt Hon. Lord Henry Cohen of Birkenhead (1900–1977) ODNB
1958
- Dr May Smith (1879–1968) ODNB
- Mrs Melanie Klein (1882–1960) ODNB
- Professor Agostino Edoardo Gemelli (1878–1960) [Italian]
- Professor Alexander Rom Luria (1902–1977) Russian]
- Professor Tom Hatherley Pear (1886–1972)
- Professor Charles Wilfred Valentine (1879–1964) ODNB
- Professor Henry Tasman Lovell (1875–1959) [Australian]
1955
- Professor Albert William Phillip Wolters (1883–1961)
1954
- Rt Hon. Lord Edgar Douglas Adrian of Cambridge (1889–1977) ODNB
- Professor Edward Chace Tolman (1886–1959) [American]
- Professor Robert Sessions Woodworth (1869–1962] [American]
- Professor Jean Piaget (1896–1980) [Swiss]
- Professor Edwin Garrigues Boring (1886–1968) [American]
- Professor Sir Cyril Lodowic Burt (1883–1971) ODNB
- Professor Sir Frederic Charles Bartlett (1886–1969) ODNB
- Professor Donald Olding Hebb (1904–1985) [Canadian]
- Professor Ernst Kretschmer (1888–1964) [German]
1952
- Professor Sir Thomas Hunter (1876–1953)
1946
- Professor Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961) [Swiss]
- Professor Sir William Mitchell (1861–1962)
- Professor Gordon Willard Allport (1897–1967) [American]
- Professor Clark Leonard Hull (1884–1952) [American]
- Professor David Katz (1884–1953) [Swedish]
- Professor Wolfgang Köhler (1887–1967) [German]
- Professor Karl Spencer Lashley (1890–1958) [American]
- Professor Gardner Murphy (1895–1979) [American]
- Professor Lewis Madison Terman (1877–1956) [American]
- Professor Louis Leon Thurstone (1887–1955) [American]
Honorary life members
Elected 1991-present
2022
- Peter Branney
2021
- Carole Allan
- Daryl O'Connor
2020
- Carol McGuinness
2019
- Jill Wilkinson
- Martin Fisher
- Michael Berger
- Nicola Gale
- Raymond Miller
2018
- Ann Colley
2016
- Zenobia Nadirshaw
2015
- Susan Hallam
2012
- Sylvia Downs
2011
- Marie Johnston
2010
- Margaret McAllister
2006
- Geoff Lindsay
2004
- Louis Kramer
2000
- Colin V. Newman
1996
- John Kirby Radford
- David Richards
1995
- Halla Beloff
1994
- Boris Semeonoff
1993
- Arthur Summerfield
1992
- Anthony Gale
- Robert Farr
1991
- David Legge
- Joyce Hulford