Alcock , Neil L , 1919-1983 , farmer and teacher

Neil Alcock was born in 1919 at Underberg, Natal. After war service, he became a farmer in Natal. In 1962, he founded Kupugani, a national welfare organisation whose object was to increase the amount of South African food available to the country's African population. From 1967 until his death he devoted his life to helping Africans with rural agricultural schemes, developing agricultural training and encouraging African ownership, home industry and literacy. In 1967 he established a Church Agricultural Project among Zulu farm people at the Maria Ratschitz Mission farm in northern Natal. In 1975 he moved to another farm, Mdukutshani, in the Msinga district near Weenen in the Kwa Zulu `bantustan'. Work at the farm, which included innovations to combat drought and pests, was described in regular newsletters from Alcock and his wife, Creina (Bond), a well-known writer on South African wild life and conservation. Alcock also acted as a representative of Africans in their dealings with white farmers and as a peace maker in local feuds. He died in an ambush on 28 September 1983 when returning with elders from a meeting he had organised to end fighting between factions.