| Name | Year | Rationale [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] |
|---|
| John Herschel | 1836 | For his paper on nebulae and clusters of stars, published in the Philosophical Transactions for 1833 |
| James Sylvester | 1861 | For his various memoirs and researches in mathematical science |
| John Newport Langley | 1892 | For his work on secreting glands, and on the nervous system |
| Charles Pritchard | 1892 | For his work on photometry and stellar parallax |
| Arthur Schuster | 1893 | For his spectroscopic inquiries, and his researches on disruptive discharge through gases and on terrestrial magnetism |
| Percy MacMahon | 1900 | For the number and range of his contributions to mathematical science |
| William Burnside | 1904 | For his researches in mathematics, particularly in the theory of groups |
| Augustus Love | 1909 | On the ground of his researches in the theory of elasticity and cognate subjects |
| William Mitchinson Hicks | 1912 | On the ground of his researches in mathematical physics |
| Grafton Elliot Smith | 1912 | No citation. |
| William Johnson Sollas | 1914 | For researches in palaeontology |
| Joseph Larmor | 1915 | On the ground of his numerous and important contributions to mathematical and physical science |
| William Rivers | 1915 | On the ground of his important contributions to ethnography and ethnology |
| William Bateson | 1920 | On the ground of his contributions to biological science, and especially his studies in genetics |
| Frederick Blackman | 1921 | For his researches on the gaseous exchange in plants & on the operation of limiting factors |
| Albert Seward | 1925 | For his researches on the palaeobotany of Gondwanaland |
| John Edward Marr | 1930 | For his pioneer work in the accurate zoning of the palaeozoic rocks |
| Patrick Laidlaw | 1933 | For his work on diseases due to viruses, including that on the cause and prevention of distemper in dogs. |
| Alfred Harker | 1935 | In recognition of his distinguished work and influence as a petrologist |
| Paul Dirac | 1939 | For the leading part he had taken in the development of the new quantum mechanics |
| William Topley | 1942 | For his outstanding work on experimental epidemiology and immunology |
| Harold Jeffreys | 1948 | For his distinguished work in geophysics and his important contributions to the astronomy of the solar system |
| Edward Appleton | 1950 | For his work on the ele [ sic ] transmission of electromagnetic waves round the earth and for his investigations of the ionic state of the upper atmosphere |
| Frederic Bartlett | 1952 | In recognition of his creation of an experimental school of psychology which has established under his leadership an outstanding position recognised internationally as without superior |
| Nevill Mott | 1953 | In recognition of his eminent work in the field of quantum theory and particularly in the theory of metals |
| John Cockcroft | 1954 | In recognition of his distinguished work on nuclear and atomic physics |
| W. V. D. Hodge | 1957 | In recognition of his distinguished work on algebraic geometry |
| Rudolf Peierls | 1959 | In recognition of his distinguished work on the theoretical foundations of high energy and nuclear physics |
| Raymond Lyttleton | 1965 | In recognition of his distinguished contributions to astronomy, particularly for his work on the dynamical stability of galaxies |
| Frank Yates | 1966 | In recognition of his profound and far-reaching contributions to the statistical methods of experimental biology |
| Joseph Hutchinson | 1967 | In recognition of his distinguished work on the genetics and evolution of crop-plants with particular reference to cotton |
| Charles Oatley | 1969 | In recognition of his distinguished work in the wartime development of radar and latterly for the design and development of a highly successful scanning electron microscope |
| Frederick Sanger | 1969 | In recognition of his pioneer work on the sequence of amino acids in proteins and of nucleotides of ribonucleic acids |
| Fred Hoyle | 1974 | In recognition of his distinguished contributions to theoretical physics and cosmology |
| Abdus Salam | 1978 | In recognition of his outstanding contributions to the physics of elementary particles with special reference to the unification of the electromagnetic and weak interactions |
| Roger Penrose | 1985 | For his fundamental contributions to the theory of gravitational collapse and to other geometric aspects of theoretical physics |
| Eric Denton | 1987 | In recognition of his outstanding contributions to the physiology of marine animals, to marine biology generally, and his leadership of UK marine science |
| Robert Hinde | 1996 | In recognition of his contributions to the field of animal behaviour and the dominant influence it achieved on the emerging field of ethology |
| Christopher Dobson | 2009 | For his outstanding contributions to the understanding of the mechanisms of protein folding and mis-folding, and the implications for disease |
