Man who discovered famous Loch Ness Monster photograph dies age 85

A pharmacist who rediscovered an iconic image of the Loch Ness Monster has died aged 85.

Bill McEwen, who previously owned Wm Ogston’s chemists in Inverness, died at his home in Westhill just before Christmas.

It was in a dusty storage cupboard in the basement of the pharmacy he made the surprising find of the original photographic plates from the world’s most infamous Nessie depiction – the Surgeon’s Photograph.

The black and white picture was reportedly taken by Robert Kenneth Wilson, a London gynaecologist, in 1933 and was published in the Daily Mail on April 21, 1934.

According to Nicholas Witchell, ex-BBC newsreader turned Nessie hunter, Mr Wilson brought in the plate negatives for Ogston’s then-owner George Morrison to develop – and he allowed him to keep some of the plates.

The pictures were then discovered by Mr McEwen years later, and fresh scrutiny would be cast on the existence of the creature.

The image – which depicts the iconic long neck of the mythical beast emerging from rippling water – was considered by many to be solid proof of the legend’s existence.

However, after years of believers and critics debating the authenticity of the photograph, in 1991, it was exposed as a fake and revealed to have been crafted by a toy submarine with a plastic head stuck on it.

It didn’t stop the obsession with the myth, however – with Mr McEwen having the picture printed as postcards for Highland tourists, which “flew off the shelves”.

Mr McEwen’s eldest son of three, Kevin, told the Inverness Courier: “Interestingly, the iconic photograph of the Loch Ness Monster, the black and white Surgeon’s photograph that turned out to be fake, was developed in the basement of Ogston’s Chemists.

“We’ve got lots of copies of the photo because dad had them printed off when he found the original plates.

“Dad also got thousands of them printed as postcards and they flew off the shelves – the tourists loved them.”