The Herald - The Herald Magazine
90 years since the release of that famous Loch Ness Monster ‘surgeon photograph’
The most famous image of Nessie taken by Robert Kenneth Wilson in 1934, a London gynaecologist, who wanted to remain anonymous
NINETY years ago, in April 1934, a photograph was taken of what purported to be the Loch Ness monster. Attributed to a doctor named Robert Kenneth Wilson, it showed Nessie’s long neck as she emerged from the water.
The so-called ‘surgeon’s photograph’ caused a sensation, and was widely taken to be the first piece of evidence in the mythical creature’s existence. Decades later the picture would be revealed as the hoax it was – but, as it happens, 1934 was an eventful year in the Nessie myth. She already had a firm grip on the public imagination.
By the time of the ‘surgeon’s photograph’ a Wyndham Productions film about Nessie was in the pipeline.
Newspapers reported in the February that work had begun on
‘The Secret of the Loch’, with the “first detachment of the filmproducing unit” arriving at the Foyers Hotel on Loch Ness.
Among those present for the making of background shots of the inns, pier and lochside were the director, Milton Rosmer, the art director J.Elder Wills and Major Keith Horan, the production director.
“Mr Bray Wyndham has announced that he has sought the aid and advice of the Zoological Society and some eminent scientists”, reported The Scotsman.
“The entire technical and acting staff has been sworn to secrecy, and no-one except people directly connected with the production of the film will be admitted to the studios.
“Mr Wyndham has always considered it a mistake to permit the public to see the wheels going round, and so he is shrouding the film in mystery. It will be one of the most technically difficult that has yet been made in this country, as there will be numerous under-water scenes which will demand the co-operation of experts”.
Two months later, on April 23, the Glasgow Herald’s ‘London Day by Day’ column informed readers that the 78-minute-long film, which centred on a professor’s attempts to prove to a disbelieving scientific community that a dinosaur inhabited the depths of Loch Ness, was about to make its premiere.
“The mysterious denizen of the Loch Ness deeps is to make his initial bow to the London public next month at a midnight matinee in the Curzon Cinema”, the paper said. “Appropriately enough the proceeds from the Wyndham film ... are to be devoted to the endowment of a bed for divers at the Dreadnought Hospital, Greenwich. Divers played no small part in the creation of the film.
“Beyond this fact little is known about the picturised version for the secret of the ‘monster’ is to be shown has been faithfully preserved.
“Mr Bray Wyndham, however, who is responsible for the production, assures me that the creature is no synthetic creation by studio experts. Many of the scenes have been filmed on the shores of Loch Ness, and in order to obtain certain sundown ‘shots’ a replica of a tug used on the loch was reproduced in the studio”.
The film, incidentally, was edited by one David Lean, who would go on to become a key figure in British cinema, winning Oscars for such films as Lawrence of Arabia and The
Bridge on the River Kwai.
Several much-publicised sightings of Nessie were also reported in 1934; and Lt-Commander R.T. Gould (R.N. ret.) published a book, The Loch Ness Monster and Others, based on evidence from people who claimed to have seen Nessie, and on his own researches.
In his opinion, Nessie was “a specimen of the rarest and leastknown of all living creatures ... one of the creatures popularly and incorrectly termed sea-serpents...”
Nessie has always been with us and, in a sense, always will be.
As the tourist website visitinvernesslochness.com has it, there is a huge collection of human testimony offering eye-witness accounts of sightings in Loch Ness.
The earliest written record is from 565AD when St. Columba is said to have driven a beast back into the water. “Infrequent sightings followed, with 21 recorded between the 1500s
Nessie has always been with us and, in a sense, always will be
and 1800s. These earliest sightings were recorded by people local to Loch Ness, at a time when mythology and superstition played a greater role in people’s lives.
So, could some of these historical Loch Ness Monster sightings perhaps be based in local folklore?”
Of the infamous 1934 photograph of Nessie, which was acknowledged as a hoax sixty years later, the website says it made Nessie an international sensation and reinforced the idea that a prehistoric animal, such as a plesiosaur, might be living in the loch.
Another website, the Official Loch Ness Monster Sightings Register (https://www.lochnesssightings.com) estimates that there have been no fewer than 1,157 recorded sightings of Nessie to date, with ten webcam sightings since 2021 alone.
The most recent sighting was on
April 4 this year. To quote from the register: “Parry Malm and his family were visiting the area when they saw something near Urquhart Castle.
“He reported, ‘At first thought was driftwood, but slowly but surely made it’s way north towards the castle. Looked like a head above the waves. Was difficult to determine with naked eye’.”
The comprehensive register lists not only the various Nessie hunts that have been assembled over the years, but also those ‘monster hunter/ researchers’ who have devoted large parts of their lives to searching for monsters at Loch Ness and elsewhere.
The website makes the point that the scientific evidence as to Nessie’s existence can be split into ‘survey evidence’ and ‘biological evidence’, the latter taking the form of actually finding and capturing Nessie, or
finding evidence of her existence.
As for the former – evidence gained from surveying the loch by such methods as sonar, film or echosounder – the register concedes that the evidence that has been gained to date is “basically inconclusive”.
“This is because while it has not proven categorically that the monster does not exist, it has only provided some pieces of evidence that may indicate that something large does live in Loch Ness,” it adds.
“The photographic and cine/video film evidence can be interpreted in many ways but unfortunately, over the years, has lost much credibility due to the number of hoaxes that have been uncovered.
“However, some photos and movie film footage still remains unexplained. The problem is that it is ‘unexplained’ and does not prove beyond doubt that Nessie and possibly her family are actually out there.”
The register goes on to observe that even some of the more spectacular photographs taken by the Academy of Applied Science “were decreed to have been of a rotting tree stump that was discovered in the loch at the time of Operation Deep Scan in 1987”.
“The strongest evidence that Nessie is in fact down there comes from the unexplained sonar contacts made over the years,” it states.
“They have been remarkably consistent in both their appearance and make up since sonar was first introduced to the loch.
“Unfortunately, these contacts by themselves do not provide definitive answers to what, if anything, lives in Loch Ness.”
Nessie has, regardless, been a boon, economically speaking; in 2018 it was reported that she brought in nearly £41million a year to the Scottish economy.
And now the 90th anniversary of the 1934 hoax photograph has itself been marked by the launch of a beer by Black Isle Brewery.
The IPA, titled ‘Mr Loch Ness IPA’, is named after Willie Cameron, a leading figure in the development of tourism in the Loch Ness area.