Dr Melville Leonard Edelstein (1919—June 16, 1976) was born to Nachum and Rose Edelstein in King William's Town. His Litvak parents had first travelled to the UK and then Cape Town in 1896 before joining the masses of "boere-Jode" [Afrikaner or farmer Jews] where his parents had settled and Nachum started and ran a successful business. Edelstein was the grandson of Michael Edelstein who established the first synagogue at King William's Town.