Baden Clegg
CLEGG, Baden, BE(Hons) PHD FIEAust (1925-1999)
Baden Clegg was born in Claremont in 1925. He attended Perth Modern School on a scholarship before studying at the University of Western Australia (UWA), funded by the State government. He commenced his tertiary studies in 1942 and graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) in 1946.
Baden worked as an engineer for the Commonwealth Board of Works in WA from 1947 to 1950. He then headed overseas to work for Scott & Wilson in London and with the Ontario Highways Department in Canada. He then returned to Australia, and in 1953 he began working for the Snowy Mountains Hydro Electric Authority, based in Cooma, NSW.
In 1956, he returned to WA to take up a post as an Engineering Lecturer at UWA. He later became a Senior Lecturer and was for a while the Sub dean of the Faculty of Engineering. He undertook a PhD while working full time, gaining his doctorate in 1968. Baden taught a compulsory first year soil mechanics class, so for several decades all civil engineering students at UWA were taught by him. He also supervised a number of PhD students. He was a long term associate of Professor E J Yoder of Purdue University, Indiana.
Clegg is best known for developing equipment which enabled soil compaction to be tested in the field for shallow building foundations on sand, and for roadworks and earthworks. In the early 1960's he developed the concept for the Perth Sand Penetrometer (PSP), based on the Dynamic Cone Penetrometer. This was researched in the Department of Civil Engineering at UWA and was introduced in cooperation with engineer Graham Glick. The test method was subsequently covered by AS 1289.6.3.3. This device continues to be very widely used in Perth.
In the 1970's Baden developed the Clegg Impact Soil Tester (CIST, or Clegg Hammer), based on instrumenting the Standard and Modified Proctor Compaction Hammers. Again, this was developed at UWA and was introduced by the Department of Civil Engineering. The test method was subsequently covered by AS 1289.6.9.1** and **ASTM D 5874.
On his retirement in 1986, UWA transferred to Baden the rights for the Clegg Impact Soil Tester. In 1993 he established Dr Baden Clegg Pty Ltd to provide an information service for the Clegg Impact Soil Tester. The Company still exists at the time of writing, August 2020, overseeing the manufacture of the Clegg Hammer in Australia. The Clegg Hammer is also manufactured under licence in the USA and UK. In the UK it is the accepted test method for trench reinstatement, having been specified by British Gas.
Clegg became a Student Member of the Institution of Engineers in 1944, a full Member in 1951 and a Fellow in 1979. He was the WA Representative on the Australian Committee of the Society of Soil Mechanics and was Chairman of the WA State Committee of the Water Research Foundation.
Baden Clegg died in 1999 and was survived by his wife, Hope (née Annert), a schoolteacher whom he had married in 1953, and their three children.
The Australian Geomechanics Society has named the Dr Baden Clegg Award (WA) to perpetuate his memory.
His published papers and reports include:
- CLEGG,B. and Yoder, E.J., 1963, Structural Analysis and Classification of Pavements, Proc 4th ANZ Conf SMFE, p 99, Adelaide, Australia;
- CLEGG,B., 1976, An Impact Testing Device for In Situ Base Course Evaluation. Proc 8th ARRB Conf 8 (8), pp 1 6, Perth, Australia;
- CLEGG,B., 1978, An Impact Soil Test for Low Cost Roads. Proc 2nd Conf Road Eng Assoc of Asia & Aust, pp 58 65, Manilla, Philippines;
- CLEGG,B., 1980, An Impact Soil Test as Alternative to California Bearing Ratio. 3rd ANZ Geomechanics Conf Vol 1, pp 225 230, Wellington, New Zealand;
- CLEGG,B., 1983a, Application of an Impact Test to Field Evaluation of Marginal Base Course Material. Proc 3rd Int Conf Low Volume Roads, Arizona, Trans Res Record 898 TRB, Washington DC, USA;
- CLEGG,B., 1983b, Design Compatible Control of Basecourse Construction. ARRB, ARR 13(2), Melbourne, Australia;
- CLEGG,B., 1976, Application of the Impact Meter to Base and Sub base Evaluation in Indiana. Dept Civil Eng, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA;
- CLEGG,B., 1977, Field Assessment of the Impact Soil Tester. ARR Report No 76 ARRB, Melbourne, Australia;
- CLEGG,B., 1985, Clegg Impact Test Guidelines. Dept Civil Eng, The University of Western Australia, Nedlands, Western Australia;
- CLEGG,B., 1994, Technical Note 1 Calculation of Penetration and Elastic Modulus from CIV. Dr Baden Clegg Pty Ltd, Australia;
- CLEGG,B., 1995, Technical Note 2 Hammer Modulus and Application of 20 kg Hammer. Dr Baden Clegg Pty Ltd, Australia;
- CLEGG,B., 1997a, Technical Note 3 Application of the 20 kg Clegg Impact Soil Tester to Evaluation of Flexible Pavements. Dr Baden Clegg Pty Ltd, Australia; and
- CLEGG,B., 1997b, Technical Note 4 Clegg Impact Value in Relation to Foundation Bearing Pressure. Dr Baden Clegg Pty Ltd, Australia.
References:
Commonwealth of Australia, Government Gazette, 16.10.1947, p 3004;
University Engineers Club, Non Loqui, 1969;
http://www.clegg.com.au/history.html accessed June 7, 2020;
https://australiangeomechanics.org/awards/dr-baden-clegg-award-wa/ accessed June 7, 2020
