It was established in 1932 as Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society and obtained its current title in 1955, with volume numbering restarting at 1.

The memoirs are a significant historical record and most include a full bibliography of works by the subjects.

The memoirs are often written by a scientist of the next generation, often one of the subject's own former students, or a close colleague.

Notable biographies published in this journal include Albert Einstein,[1] Alan Turing,[2] Bertrand Russell,[3] Claude Shannon,[4] Clement Attlee,[5] Ernst Mayr,[6] and Erwin Schrödinger.

[7] Each year, around 40 to 50 memoirs of deceased Fellows of the Royal Society are collated by the Editor-in-Chief, currently Malcolm Longair, who succeeded Trevor Stuart in 2016.