John Potter Masterton (known as Jock) was born in 1928. Having recently qualified as a surgeon Masterton participated in the pioneering British North Greenland Expedition from 1952 to 1954 as the expedition's medical officer. The expedition involved a team of over 20 men spending 2 years exploring the north Greenland ice sheet and included pioneering and important research in the fields of glaciology, geology, metrology, gravimetry, physiology and polar logistics. Working alongside another doctor Masterton looked after the medical needs of the party as well as undertaking physiological studies, which would later form the basis of published research.

Masterton went on to have a successful academic and medical career. In the 1960s he emigrated to Australia and joined Monash University in 1963, publishing on surgery and burns alongside working in surgery and with medical students. In 1967 he was instrumental in the establishment of the Victorian Burns Unit at Alfred Hospital in Melbourne and was its director for 28 years until his retirement. In 1991 he was awarded the Member of the Order of Australia for his contribution to the treatment of burns and Australian Antarctic expeditions.