Samir Morgan was born in El Menia, Egypt, on 26 June 1946. His father, Sadek, was a businessman and his mother, Fahema, a housewife. His brother went on to become an ENT specialist. Samir trained at the Asiut University Medical School, where he graduated with honours in 1968. After junior posts and a period in general practice, he specialised in orthopaedics, training at the Dar Al-Salam General Hospital and the Poliomyelitis Institute in Cairo. He then went to Saudi Arabia, first as a registrar in trauma and orthopaedics to Dammam Central Hospital in Saudi Arabia, and later as a specialist orthopaedic surgeon in Qatif Central Hospital in the Eastern Province, from 1982 to 1992. He came to England in 1992, starting as a senior house officer in orthopaedics at Northampton General Hospital, where he passed the FRCS and was promoted to registrar the following year. In 1999, he was appointed staff grade orthopaedic surgeon to the Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital in Grimsby and in the following year was made locum consultant. He had a particular interest in the surgery of the hand.