Jock Alves

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Jock Alves
Member of the Senate of Rhodesia
In office
1970s – 10 February 1979
Mayor of Salisbury
In office
2 August 1972 – 7 August 1974
Preceded byRoger Bates
Succeeded byTony Tanser
Personal details
Bornc. 1909
Scotland, United Kingdom
Died10 February 1979 (aged 70)
Salisbury, Rhodesia
Political partyRhodesian Front
Alma materLondon School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (BA, PhD)
OccupationEpidemiologist, politician

William "Jock" Alves (c. 1909 – 10 February 1979) was a Scottish-born Rhodesian physician and politician who served as mayor of Salisbury (now Harare) from 1972 to 1974. He later served as a member of the Senate of Rhodesia until his death. An epidemiologist by profession, he directed a bilharzia research laboratory in Salisbury and later worked with the World Health Organization on parasitic disease projects.

Medical career[edit]

Alves was of Scottish origin.[1] Alves earned his Bachelor of Arts from a South African university.[2] He pursued his doctorate at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, but had to return to Southern Rhodesia in 1947 before completing his degree.[3] He later returned and was awarded a PhD in 1953.[4][5]

Alves was a physician and was the director of the Bilharzia and Malaria Research Laboratory in Salisbury from 1944 into the 1950s.[6][7][8][9] He also belonged to the department of parasitology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.[7] He was considered an international authority on bilharzia, and during his tenure at the laboratory developed a treatment for the disease that was successfully tested on 25 patients.[6][8][9] He served on the World Health Organization (WHO) expert committee on parasitic diseases.[10] In 1958, he led a WHO project in the Philippines.[11] In 1961, he was senior advisor on a WHO malaria eradication project in the Solomon Islands.[4]

Political career[edit]

Alves was elected to the Salisbury City Council and served as deputy mayor from 1971 to 1972 under Mayor Roger Bates.[12] On 2 August 1972, he was sworn in as mayor Salisbury at a special meeting of the city council.[13] He served as mayor until 7 August 1974, when he was succeeded by Tony Tanser.[14] Alves continued to serve on the city council, and later became a member of the Rhodesian senate.[15] In 1978, as chairman of the city council's African affairs committee, Alves introduced a scheme to set up a two-tier system in which blacks and whites would each have municipal representation on their own city councils.[15] The proposal passed without debate in January 1978.[15] In June 1978, Alves made a speech before the senate in which he urged the Rhodesian government to include the African nationalist leader Joshua Nkomo, and possibly Robert Mugabe, in any potential settlement negotiations.[16] He was a member of the ruling Rhodesian Front party, and was for a time a party spokesman.[17]

Alves died at Andrew Fleming Hospital in Salisbury on 10 February 1979, aged 70.[18]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Hill, Geoffrey Edward (2002). Rhodesians Worldwide. p. 22.
  2. ^ Year Book of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. 1955. p. 26.
  3. ^ Report on the Work of the School for the year 1947–1948. London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. 1948.
  4. ^ a b Year Book of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. 1961. p. 32.
  5. ^ Report on the Work of the School for the year 1953-1954. London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. 1954. p. 61.
  6. ^ a b East Africa and Rhodesia. Africana. 1958. p. 707.
  7. ^ a b South African Medical Journal. Medical Association of South Africa. 1949. p. 428.
  8. ^ a b The Chemical Age. Morgan-Grampian. 1958. p. 242.
  9. ^ a b West Africa. West Africa Publishing Company, Limited. 1959. p. 358.
  10. ^ Horizon. Rhodesian Selection Trust Group of Companies. 1959. p. 10.
  11. ^ Optima. Anglo American Corporation of South Africa. 1958. p. 139.
  12. ^ Who's who of Rhodesia, Mauritius, Central and East Africa. Wooten & Gibson. 1971. p. 1150.
  13. ^ Summary of World Broadcasts: Non-Arab Africa. BBC. 1972.
  14. ^ Summary of World Broadcasts: Non-Arab Africa. BBC. 1974.
  15. ^ a b c "Two-tier Local Government". The Rhodesia Herald. 2 January 1978. Retrieved 18 May 2020 – via Google Books.
  16. ^ "Senator Urges Nkomo Participation". The Rhodesia Herald. 2 June 1978. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
  17. ^ Windrich, Elaine (1981). The Mass Media in the Struggle for Zimbabwe: Censorship and Propaganda Under Rhodesian Front Rule. Gweru: Mambo Press. p. 99.
  18. ^ Summary of World Broadcasts: Non-Arab Africa. BBC. 1979. p. 6.
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