Amateur Photographer - Ken Gilbert

Icons of Photography The Loch Ness Monster
© DAILY MAIL/SOLO
discovered that they
had been made with a
dried hippo’s foot. The
Daily Mail exposed
Wetherell’s deceit, and both sacked
and publicly ridiculed him. However,
other reports of sightings continued
and the story became the subject
of much speculation.
The public interest in ‘Nessie’
reached a new level with the image
of the monster that appeared in
the Daily Mail on 21 April 1934.
The photographer was identifi ed as
the London doctor Colonel Robert
Kenneth Wilson, although, oddly,
he refused to be credited for the
picture. It became known as the
‘Surgeon’s Photograph.’ In common
with other descriptions of the animal,
the creature in the picture had a
long neck and resembled a kind
of latter-day plesiosaur.
For some, this image offered
dramatic evidence of Nessie’s
existence and it became known
around the world. Sceptics who
found it hard to believe that an
animal of this nature could exist
in the loch also found it diffi cult to
offer a precise explanation for the
image. For many years it remained
the best available evidence for the
Loch Ness Monster.
In 1984, Stewart Campbell,
writing in the British Journal of
Photography, reported on his own
study of the image. By analysing
the uncropped photograph, which
also included a small section of the
loch’s shoreline at the top of the
frame, he estimated that the object
in the picture was actually quite
small, at around 2-3ft (0.6-0.9m)
long. He speculated that the object
was more likely to be a diving bird
or an otter.
However, further revelations
established the truth of the matter.
Alastair Boyd, a former English
teacher, and his friend David Martin,
were intrigued when they found a
1975 newspaper clipping in which
Ian Wetherell (son of the disgraced
Marmaduke) had stated that the
photo was a hoax. Wetherell’s
remarks had gone largely unnoticed
at the time and he had died by the
time that Boyd and Martin began their
investigations. However, Marmaduke
Right: Colonel Robert Kenneth
Wilson, a London doctor, took the
famous 1934 photo of ‘Nessie’ (see
page 30). Above: Big-game hunter
MAIL/SOLO
Marmaduke Wetherell searching
DAILY
for the Loch Ness Monster in 1933 ©
Wetherell’s son-in-law, Christian
Spurling, was still alive.
Spurling, then in his 90s and
terminally ill, admitted that he had
constructed the fake monster using
a toy submarine fi tted with a head
and neck that he had sculpted
using plastic wood. He had done
so at the request of Marmaduke
Wetherell, who was determined
to get his revenge on the Daily Mail.
‘We’ll give them their monster,’ he
is reputed to have said.
The other conspirators were Ian
Wetherell, who provided Spurling
with the materials, and their friend
Maurice Chambers, who enlisted their
mutual acquaintance Robert Wilson
as a creditable front man. The results
of Boyd and Martin’s research were
published in their 1994 book Nessie:
The Surgeon’s Photograph Exposed.
This story, although kept secret
by its perpetrators for 60 years, is
now generally accepted as the true
explanation for the photograph.
Nevertheless, apparent sightings
of Nessie continue. As recently as
August 2009, national newspapers
reported that the monster had been
OF PHOTOGRAPHY
spotted in a Google Earth aerial
image of the loch – even though it
looked uncannily like a boat. Sceptics
continue to understand these
‘sightings’ as a mixture of hoaxes and
wishful thinking, but the mystery of the
Loch Ness Monster endures. AP
Recommended
Books
Nessie: The Surgeon’s Photograph Exposed,
by David M Martin and Alastair Boyd, is
currently available on www.amazon.com for
£6.50. There are also numerous other books
available on the Loch Ness mystery generally.
Website
www.wikipedia.org contains a good account
of the Loch Ness Monster phenomenon
and includes useful links to other websites.
Another site worth visiting is www.
lochnessproject.org.
32 I www.amateurphotographer.co.uk I 28 November 2009 subscribe 0845 676 7778
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