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.

Her areas of study included Welsh social history, the political history of Welsh women from 1800 to 1914, and the history of liberalism in Wales.

Early life and education Ursula Masson was born into the Irish community of Merthyr Tydfil, whose history she researched for her master's degree at University of Keele. She attended Cyfarthfa Castle Grammar School and Cardiff University. Masson had commenced doctoral research into women's Liberal Associations in Wales prior to her death, and her thesis was published posthumously.

She established what became the Centre for Gender Studies in Wales at University of South Wales. Her students described her 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,

"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).

Legacy The public Ursula Masson Memorial Lecture on the subject of gender studies is given annually at the Centre for Gender Studies in Wales at University of South Wales. The Centre also awards the Ursula Masson Memorial Prize annually for the best undergraduate dissertation in women’s or gender history. A Purple Plaque was installed at Merthyr Tydfil Central Library on 8 March 2019 to commemorate her life and achievements. 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