Complex sentence: The son, James Irvine Orme Masson, born at Melbourne in 1887, had a distinguished academic career, becaming Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sheffield in 1938, and elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1939.
Split into simpler sentences: The son, James Irvine Orme Masson, born at Melbourne in 1887, had a distinguished academic career. He became vice-chancellor of the University of Sheffield in 1938, and was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1939.