Ursula Masson

Ursula Masson (1945–2008), born Ursula O'Connor, was a Welsh academic and writer who worked closely with Jane Aaron and Honno Press/Gwasg Honno, the Welsh Women's Press, on the imprint Welsh Women's Classics – to bring back into print the works of forgotten Welsh women writers of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Early life

Ursula Masson was born into the Irish community of Merthyr Tydfil, whose history she researched for her master's degree. After university she worked as a journalist, at home in South Wales and in Australia, before returning to teach adults in Swansea. In 1994 she became a lecturer in history at the University of Glamorgan.

Career

Ursula Masson, International Women's Day, 8 March 2003, The Old Library, Cardiff

Ursula Masson, together with the eminent Welsh historian Professor Deirdre Beddoe, was instrumental in founding Archif Menywod Cymru / Women's Archive Wales in 1998. She was also a committee member of the South-West Group of the Women's History Network (later renamed South West and Wales Group), and co-edited Llafur, the journal of Llafur: The Welsh People's History Society. During a long period as Chair of Archif Menywod Cymru / Women's Archive Wales, she put forward the idea of holding a series of Wales Women's History Roadshows, where people would be invited to bring material relating to the social history of women's lives, which were deposited in many cases in public archive collections in Wales, or were photographed or scanned, the results later becoming part of The People's Collection Wales. At Glamorgan, she established the Gender Studies department in Wales Centre. Ursula was described by her students as an "inspirational" teacher. Whilst teaching and organizing, she continued with her own research, editing the Aberdare Women's Liberal Association 1891–1910 papers, and completing a doctorate entitled For Women, for Wales and for Liberalism: Women in Liberal Politics in Wales, 1880–1914, which was published by the University of Wales Press:

"This is a wonderful work of reconstruction from difficult sources. Ursula Masson makes a vital contribution to several aspects of modern Welsh history and provides a key part of the story of the women's suffrage movement in Wales, a dimension that enhances recent research on campaigning pressure groups in Wales. It combines general analysis for the whole of Wales with intense, fascinating studies of the contrasting communities of Cardiff and Aberdare. The work behind these is as thorough, and as revealing, as an archaeological dig," according to Neil Evans of Cardiff University.

Ursula Masson also edited two books in the Honno Classics series: Elizabeth Andrews, A Woman's Work is Never Done (2006) and The Very Salt of Life: Welsh Women's Political Writings from Chartism to Suffrage (2007).

"For those of us who had the privilege of knowing her, it won't be the teacher or researcher or organizer we're primarily grieving, however, but the friend who always seemed to have space for people, and warmth and humour to give them, though she was so busy, and though, since 2001, she was fighting serious illness. In her final years she gave us an extraordinary example of the way in which the human spirit can with dignity and grace face up to the worst trials. It is for us now to treasure the records she has left us of her own life and work, which are every bit as valiant and inspiring as those of the Welsh heroines she researched" (Jane Aaron).

Publications

• A Woman's Work is Never Done by Elizabeth Andrews, edited and introduced by Ursula Masson, Honno Press, 2006
• The Very Salt of Life: Welsh Women's Political Writings from Chartism to Suffrage, edited and introduced by Jane Aaron and Ursula Masson, Honno Press, 2007
• For Women, for Wales and for Liberalism: Women in Liberal Politics in Wales, 1800-1914, Ursula Masson, University of Wales Press, 2010