Mohamed Hassan El Zeneiny was born on 5 July 1909. His father, Dr Hassan Hussien El Zeneiny was a veterinary doctor. He attended primary and secondary schools in Cairo and studied medicine at Kasr-El-Aini University, Cairo, while working at the University Hospital as a house officer, later becoming resident surgical registrar. During this period he also worked at the Ministry of Public Health as medical officer in the endemic diseases section. In 1937 he won a scholarship to study in England and spent some time at the Middlesex, London, Guy's, St Bartholomew's and Royal Marsden Hospitals. He passed the Fellowship in 1940. In 1946 he won a scholarship to the USA and visited the New York Memorial Hospital and Ann Arbor University Hospital. Returning to Cairo he became surgical tutor and, eventually, Professor of General Surgery at the Kasr-El-Aini University Hospital where he founded a chest surgery unit. His main interests were tennis and swimming which he practised regularly. In 1956 he married Miss Ragi and they had two daughters and a son. He died in 1979 aged 70.