Jim Flegg

{{Short description|British horticulturalist and broadcaster (1937–2024)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2025 }} {{Use British English|date=May 2025}} {{Infobox person/Wikidata | fetchwikidata=ALL | dateformat = dmy }} '''James John Maitland Flegg''', OBE (23 April 1937 – 7 May 2024) was a British horticulturalist, broadcaster, ornithologist and writer on bird-related matters.

==Life and career== Flegg was born in Hong Kong on 23 April 1937<ref name="Vane-Wright">{{cite journal |last1=Vane-Wright |first1=Dick |title=Jim Flegg, OBE, 1937–2024 |journal=The Adonis |date=November 2024 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/387756948}}</ref> and was a zoology graduate of Imperial College London who spent much of his subsequent professional career working in horticulture at the East Malling Research Station.<ref name="Vane-Wright" /><ref name=nfs>[http://www.nationalfruitshow.org.uk/competitions/judges.htm National Fruit Show Judges – Dr Jim Flegg] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140322211954/http://www.nationalfruitshow.org.uk/competitions/judges.htm |date=22 March 2014 }}, accessed 20-03-14</ref> He authored a number of papers on nematodes.<ref name="Vane-Wright" />

Flegg also had a lifelong interest in ornithology, having joined the Rochester and District Natural History Society as a junior member. As an ornithologist, he became well-known, having become president of Kent Ornithological Society in 1977, and was Director of the British Trust for Ornithology from 1995 to 1998.<ref name="Vane-Wright" /> He was a presenter on the regional ''Coastal Ways'' and ''Country Ways'' television programmes for Meridian Broadcasting.<ref name="Vane-Wright" /> He also served as chairman of the trustees of Dungeness Bird Observatory.<ref name="Vane-Wright" />

Flegg was a bird ringer and ringed over 30,000 birds.{{Citation needed|date=June 2012}} Among the books Flegg authored are the Photographic Field Guide: Birds of Australia, and a number of books designed to interest children in living things from an early age.

He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1997 Birthday Honours.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=54794|date=14 June 1997|supp=y|page=11}}</ref>

Flegg died at home on 7 May 2024, at the age of 87.<ref name="Vane-Wright" /><ref>{{cite news |title=Dr. Jim Flegg, OBE |url=https://announcements.telegraph.co.uk/marketplace/advert/flegg-notices_57297 |access-date=25 May 2024 |publisher=The Telegraph |date=25 May 2024}}</ref>

== References == {{reflist}}

== External links ==

* {{IMDb name}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Flegg, Jim}} Category:1937 births Category:2024 deaths Category:British ornithologists Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire Category:Alumni of Imperial College London Category:British horticulturists Category:Hong Kong people Category:British television presenters