Born in Leeds, Father Desmond Donovan was ordained in 1960 after doing his novitiate at Roehampton. He then taught for five years at Saint Aidan’s College in Grahamstown, South Africa. He served for two years at Harare Mission in Salisbury, Rhodesia, followed by a stint as the Superior at Saint Paul’s Mission in Musami from 1969-1974. On January 15, 1978, Father Donovan was abducted while riding his motorcycle from his mission station at Makumbi to Govera, an outlying mass center in the Chinamora African tribal area about thirty miles north of Salisbury. Though his motorcycle was later found buried, no trace of Father Donovan has ever been discovered.
Sources: http://archive.catholicherald.co.uk/article/20th-january-1978/1/fears-for-missin-jesuit
