Born in Birmingham on 18 December 1900, son of George Owen Donovan, an electrical engineer, and Mabel Smith, Thomas Smith Donovan was educated at King Edward VI School, Aston, and King Edward School, Birmingham. He graduated MB ChB Birmingham in 1924. He was house surgeon, house physician and resident surgical officer at Queen's Hospital, Birmingham, and resident surgical officer at the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital, Oswestry. He was lecturer in orthopaedic surgery in Birmingham University and surgeon to the United Birmingham Hospitals, the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital and Kidderminster Hospital. His interest in orthopaedic surgery was stimulated by a visit to Bohler's clinic in Vienna and by Sir Robert Jones. During the early part of the second world war he was casualty surgeon in Birmingham but later joined the RAMC, serving in France and attaining the temporary rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. In 1946 he returned to the General Hospital in Birmingham and in 1960 joined the staff of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. He was a skilled surgeon, always using a meticulous no-touch technique, and his practice grew large because his sound judgement, courtesy and concern for his patients' welfare were widely appreciated in the West Midlands. He was tenacious in defence of policies that he believed correct and just, and was often a formidable opponent in committee. He enjoyed teaching and students, postgraduates, nurses and physiotherapists greatly appreciated the clarity of his demonstrations and tutorials. He was President of the League of Orthopaedic Nurses and Physiotherapists for some years. As a student he had been awarded blues for rugby and boxing and in his later years he became an expert fisherman of trout and salmon over a two mile stretch of the Wye. He retired in 1966 and unhappily became slowly blind, a misfortune that he met with characteristic fortitude. In 1935 he married Joan and she and their two sons, one a doctor, survived him when he died on 24 August 1980, aged 79 years.