| Jock Alves | |
| Office1: | Member of the Senate of Rhodesia |
| Office2: | Mayor of Salisbury |
| Party: | Rhodesian Front |
| Death Date: | 10 February 1979 (aged 70) |
| Death Place: | Salisbury, Rhodesia |
| Termend2: | 7 August 1974 |
| Termstart2: | 2 August 1972 |
| Successor2: | Tony Tanser |
| Predecessor2: | Roger Bates |
| Termstart1: | 1970s |
| Termend1: | 10 February 1979 |
| Alma Mater: | London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (BA, PhD) |
| Birth Date: | 1909 |
| Occupation: | Epidemiologist, politician |
| Birth Place: | Scotland, United Kingdom |
William "Jock" Alves (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.
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. 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. 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.
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. The proposal passed without debate in January 1978. 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]