Prior to 1952, Clegg worked as a laboratory technician under Hans Adolf Krebs at Sheffield University's biochemistry department. From 1952 to 1955 he was a Junior Assistant in Natural History at the Sheffield City Museum, which he left between 1955 and 1959 to work at the Woodend Museum in Scarborough as the Assistant Curator before returning to the museum at Sheffield as Natural History Assistant in October 1959. From June 1963 until November 1966, Clegg was the Keeper of Natural Sciences at Doncaster Museum and Art Gallery before, in December 1966 moving to become the Curator of the Bagshaw Museum. He remained in this post until autumn of 1968 when he took up the position of Deputy Director of Dundee Museum, a post in which he remained for six years. In November 1974 he returned to Yorkshire as the Keeper of the Yorkshire Museum which was to be his final curatorship. From 1982 Clegg was a freelance presenter. He presented 'Country Calendar', 'Strictly for the Birds' and 'Clegg's People' for Yorkshire Television, the latter of which ran for ten series as well as a number of programmes for the BBC. He also enjoyed an active radio career, contributing to various local and national natural history programmes and was the resident 'professional naturalist' on the BBC Radio 4 programme 'The Conch Quiz'. He wrote columns for the Dundee Courier and the Yorkshire Evening Post. He was an extra mural lecturer for various universities, including Hull, where he was made an honorary fellow in the Department of Adult Education. He was actively involved with many natural history groups, his various positions included president of the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and of the Yorkshire Naturalist's Union, along with vice presidencies of the Leeds Urban Wildlife Group, York Ornithologist's Club and Rossington Natural History Society. Clegg was a fellow of the Museums Association awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree by the University of Hull in 1993.
Legacy
In 2004, a newly-created hay meadownature reserve at Broomhill Flash was named 'Clegg's Meadow' in recognition of Michael's work campaigning for the protection of wildlife sites in the area. An annual 'Michael Clegg Memorial Birdrace' is held on the first Sunday of each year in which teams from Yorkshire's popular bird-watching areas compete to find and identify as many species of birds in a single day, with proceeds of the event going to charity.
Selected publications
Clegg, M. 1961. "The food and feeding habits of a captive oystercatcher", British Birds 54, 204-205.
Clegg, M. 1963. "Observations on an East Yorkshire population of the house mouse", The Naturalist 88, 39-40.
