Basil Stanley Kuming was an ophthalmic surgeon in Johannesburg, South Africa. Born on 4 January 1937, he was the oldest son of Chaim Kuming, an hotelier, and his wife Frieda née Lurge. Educated at St Andrew’s School in Bloemfontein where he won a prize for English in 1954, he then attended the University of the Witwatersrand and trained at Baragwanath Hospital qualifying MB ChB in 1960. He came to the UK and did house jobs at the Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead where he was influenced by the ophthalmic surgeon Sir Benjamin William Ryecroft. He passed the fellowship of the college in 1967 and returned to practice as a consultant ophthalmic surgeon in South Africa. In 1961 he married Jan Nelson and they had two sons and a daughter. Outside medicine he enjoyed collecting stamps and doing woodwork. He was living in Parklands, South Africa when he died on 5 April 1997 aged 60.