The society was founded on 22 April 1936 in Glasgow, conceived by Andrew Dewar Gibb and George Malcolm Thomson. Subscription for a year cost five shillings. By the early 1950s the society had almost 2000 members. In 1954 they launched a literary magazine, "The Scots Review" to be published three times a year. In 1968 the society appointed their first full-time director, based at their headquarters at Gladstone's Land in Edinburgh. In 2001, the Saltire Society's head, Scott Peake, stepped down after newspaper investigations revealed that he had fabricated parts of his biography, including his alleged Scottish upbringing. In November 2012, ahead of the Scottish Independence referendum, the society looked to relaunch itself with a business plan that included lectures and debates centered around cultural issues.