Matthew served with the British Army in Europe and Hong Kong before going to medical school in London in 1984. He graduated from St ThomasHospitalMedicalSchool in 1989, and has moved steadily west ever since, first to Bath, then Bristol. He trained in Orthopaedic surgery in Bristol and the South West and was a Research Fellow and later Lecturer in Trauma and Orthopaedic surgery at the University of Bristol from 1995 to 2000. His research included studying the long term outcome of primary and revision total hip replacements, and the use of bone grafts in revision hip surgery. In 2000 he undertook a fellowship in Melbourne, Australia, specialising in hip, knee and trauma surgery.