Edward Leslie Gilbert Clegg died after an operation in the General Hospital, Calcutta, on September 8th, 1944, at the age of 51.
He was born in Manchester and was educated at the Central High School and Victoria University, Manchester, interrupting his studies during the Great War to join the Northumberland Fusiliers, with whom he served with the rank of captain from 1915 to 1919, fighting in France and Italy. He resumed his work at the Victoria University and took the M.Sc. degree in geology in 1920.
On December 1st, 1920, he was appointed assistant superintendent in the Geological Survey of India, and the following twelve years were spent in field work in the Central Provinces and Burma, and water supply investigations in Dhanbad and Chittagong. While in Calcutta he was curator of the Geological Museum and, later, officer-in-charge of the Geological Survey Office and he lectured on geology at Presidency College and at the Bengal Engineering College, Sibpur. In addition, from 1927 to 1930, he was one of the joint honorary secretaries of the Mining and Geological Institute of India, of which he became vice-president in 1943. He received the D.Sc. degree of Manchester in 1939.
In 1932, Dr. Clegg was promoted to the grade of superintendent and placed in charge of the Burma Circle, and upon the separation of Burma from India in April, 1937, was made the first superintendent geologist of the new Burma Geological Department, his work including that of adviser on local government mining administration and the granting of mineral concessions. Upon the invasion of Burma by the Japanese, Dr. Clegg made a valuable traverse through the Hukawng valley for a military road to Imlia, reaching Marghorita in Assam in Juno, 1942, while his wife and two other members of the Indian Survey made their way from Burma to Calcutta. In July, 1943, he was appointed director of the Geological Survey of India, a position he held at the time of his death.
Dr. Clegg was the author of a work on ‘The mineral deposits of Burma’, published by the Government of Burma in 1940, and his other works include articles on lead, silver, tin, Wolfram and zinc for the ‘Quinquennial review of the mineral production of India’, and contributions on tin and Wolfram to the Records of the Geological Survey of India. Two memoirs were contributed by him to the Geological Survey of India — ‘The geology of parts of the Minbu and Thayetmyo Districts, Burma’, and ‘The cretaeeous and associated rocks of Burma’.
Dr. Clegg was elected a Member of the Institution in 1941.
Vol. 55, Trans I.M.M. 1945-6, pp. 563-4
