An Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society is a person elected under special criteria to Fellowship of the Royal Society. They are ineligible in the other criteria for election as a Fellow or Foreign Member but have "rendered signal service to the cause of science, or whose election would significantly benefit the Society by their great experience in other walks of life".
The position of Honorary Fellow replaced that whereby Fellows could be elected under Statute 12. Under this statute, members such as Margaret Thatcher, Clement Attlee and Benjamin Disraeli became fellows.
They must be nominated by six fellows and then receive two thirds of votes at the meeting. Only one honorary fellow may be elected per year.
Six Honorary Fellows have been elected since their creation in 2000: