| Admin_History | William Donovan was born on 10 June 1900. His family lived on Commercial Road, London, and between 1911 and 1918 he was at St Ignatius’ School, Stamford Hill. He entered the Society at Heythrop in 1919 and was ordained there 9 September 1932. He did two years regency at Mount St Mary’s, and on completing his tertianship at St Beuno’s in 1934 he sailed for Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) where he worked for the next 40 years. While in Zimbabwe, he initially worked at St George’s College. After 3 and half years he went to St Benedict’s Mission, now in the Mutare district, to learn Shona. He spent a year there, then six months at the neighbouring Triashill Mission, before moving to the Driefontein Mission in July 1939, where he spent the next 20 years of his life.
In 1959, Donovan became a chaplain to a convent of Sisters and the mine workers at Mangula, and filled in for diocesan priests when necessary. He spent a few months at the Sacred Heart Cathedral, Harare, and five years at Braeside, a Salisbury Parish. He then became parish priest at Mabelreign where he was involved in a serious car crash. He spent a year recuperating, including a long period of convalescence in Cape Town where he did some light work on the parish. When he returned to work he became chaplain at Martindale, a school run by Dominican sisters outside Salisbury.
On leaving Zimbabwe he stayed at the Marianhill Monastery in Natal for a month before returning to the UK. After a short spell at Forres he took over the church and parish of the Scilly Isles from Bernard Basset SJ. In 1979, he retired to Westbourne but continued to do supply work. When Westbourne closed he moved to Preston, where he spent his last two years, still working when he was able to. Shortly before Christmas 1983 he moved to the care of the Servite nuns at their hospital in Blackburn, then moved to the Sisters of Mercy in Colwyn Bay, where the community of St Beuno’s often visited him. He died there 30 January 1984. |