Masson was born in
Melbourne and was the daughter of
David Orme Masson and his wife Mary Struthers, daughter of
John Struthers, who had arrived in Australia from Scotland in 1886. Sister of
Irvine Masson and
Marnie Bassett. A close family friend of the family was
Baldwin Spencer who likely influenced Masson to later travel to the
Northern Territory. Masson first moved to the Northern Territory in 1913 to work as a
governess to the children of
John A. Gilruth, who was the Administrator, she also acted as a companion to his wife and she left in 1914. It was while in Darwin, and the travel she did from there, that she began publishing articles in numerous Australian newspapers about her life there which became the book,
An Untamed Territory: The Northern Territory of Australia (1915). This book is a lively account which covers material from
Darwin to
Pine Creek. In Melbourne, and with the outbreak of
World War I, Masson trained as a nurse and then, also in 1914, met and, in 1919, married
Bronisław Malinowski; together they settled in
England and
Italy. Their daughter
Helena Malinowska Wayne would conduct research and publish several works about the life her parents, including a book
The story of a marriage: the letters of Bronislaw Malinowski and Elsie Masson (1995). She died in 1935 while in
Austria. == References ==