Ursula Masson

by Laura Bray

You may have seen Keith Lewis-Jones’ piece on this blog about Ursula Masson (https://www.merthyr-history.com/?p=5547), who is cited in a purple plaque outside the library, and wondered who is.  She was, in fact, one of those people who had a large, but quiet, effect on the prominence of Welsh women’s history in the 20th century, so I wanted to expand on Keith’s excellent but brief citation, as we should know more about Ursula and be rightly proud of this child of Merthyr.

Ursula was born into the Irish community of Merthyr in 1945, attending Cyfarthfa Grammar School and then Cardiff University. She went on to do her Master’s degree in Keele University, the subject of which was the history of the Irish in Merthyr.

Following her Master’s degree, Ursula worked as a journalist in South Wales and Australia, before returning to teach adults in Swansea. In 1994 she became a lecturer in history at the University of Glamorgan, and it was here that she became known for her pioneering work in the social and political history of women in Wales. She co-founded the Women’s Archive Wales (Archif Menywod Cymru) in 1998, was 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. She encouraged and and promoted a series of Wales Women’s History Roadshows, where people were invited to bring material relating to the social history of women’s lives; edited the Aberdare Women’s Liberal Association 1891–1910 papers, and became involved in Honno Welsh Women’s Press. Much of this material has been copied and saved for the nation in the People’s Collection Wales.

Janet Aaron, of Honno, remembers her fondly:

“Ursula edited and introduced 2 volumes in the Welsh Women’s Classics series, an autobiographical volume by the pioneering Welsh socialist Elizabeth Andrews, A Woman’s Work is Never Done, which was published in the series in 2006, and an anthology of Welsh women’s political writing, The Very Salt of life: Welsh Women’s Political Writings from Chartism to Suffrage, which she co-edited with myself, and which was published by Honno in 2007. I enclose above reproductions of the covers of the two books, and a photograph of Ursula at the launch of A Woman’s Work is Never Done which was held in what is now the Senedd building.

Ursula’s contribution to each volume was considerable: as well as writing introductions to both, she included in the Andrews’ volume a number of articles by Andrews as well as the autobiographical text itself, and nobody but her could have found all the material republished in The Very Salt of Life, particularly the suffragette material. Many previously forgotten political women, who contributed significantly to the advance of women in Wales, feature in that volume.”

Sadly, Ursula became very unwell during 2001, but not being one to give up she continued her research, completing a doctorate entitled For Women, for Wales and for Liberalism: Women in Liberal Politics in Wales, 1880–1914, which was published posthumously by the University of Wales Press. She died in 2008, but her legacy remains: 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; as is the annual Ursula Masson Memorial Prize  for the best undergraduate dissertation in women’s or gender history.

So next time you pass the library, stop and look at the plaque – and remember one of Merthyr’s forgotten heroines.