Thamotharampillai Nadarajah Shanmugalingam was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon in Sri Lanka. He was born on 26 September 1928, in Point Pedro, Ceylon, the son of Thamotharampillai Nadarajah, a land owner and merchant, and Vettrivetpillai Muthuratnam, a housewife. He was educated at Hartley College, Point Pedro, and then Pembroke Academy, Colombo. He went on to study medicine at the University of Ceylon, qualifying in 1951 with a distinction in surgery. After junior posts he studied for the primary FRCS, winning the Hallett prize in the examination held in Ceylon in 1956. He then went to England to study surgery, passed the fellowship of the Edinburgh and English colleges in 1960, and then specialised in orthopaedics, passing the Liverpool masters degree in 1962. He then returned to Ceylon, becoming, in 1962, a consultant orthopaedic surgeon attached to the department of health services of the government of Ceylon. He also taught undergraduate and postgraduate medical students, and was an examiner for undergraduate examinations. He was initially based in the General Hospital, Galle, where he organised a new orthopaedic unit. From 1963 to 1965 he was an orthopaedic surgeon at the General Hospital, Badulla, where he again started an orthopaedic unit. From 1966 until his retirement in 1988 he was one of three orthopaedic surgeons at the General Hospital, Colombo. During his tenure there he dealt with many difficult, often neglected, orthopaedic problems, including TB of the spine, missed congenital dislocation of the hips, diseases of the shoulder and other major joints. He also treated all types of trauma, including closed and open fractures. He was an overseas fellow of the British Orthopaedic Association, and a member of the College of Surgeons of Sri Lanka and the Sri Lanka Medical Association. He married Padmajothy (Pala) in 1952 and they had two sons, Shrikharan, a consultant surgeon practising in Sri Lanka, and Easwaran, and a daughter, Sumathi. Thamotharampillai Nadarajah Shanmugalingam died on 7 December 2007, aged 79.