A Scottish pharmacist linked to the Loch Ness Monster passed away last month after a rewarding career in community pharmacy. 

Bill McEwen, 85, died peacefully at home on December 22, 2024, and was well-known locally for running Ogston’s Chemist, previously on Union Street in Inverness, from 1971 to 1997. 

After purchasing Ogston’s, McEwen found multiple copies of the photograph of the Loch Ness Monster, which were supposedly taken by London gynaecologist Robert Kenneth Wilson before their publication in 1934. 

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“That was the premises on which that photograph was developed, it was developed in the basement,” his son, Kevin McEwen, told C+D. 

Although they could not find the original photographic plates or other equipment that may have been used to print Wilson’s photograph, they printed the copies onto postcards to sell in the pharmacy for a “bit of free PR” for Ogston’s. 

“He wasn’t a Loch Ness hunter, he was a local pharmacist!” Kevin said of his father Bill, although he says the picture became “synonymous with Ogston’s” because it was developed there, even though Kevin admits “it’s a pretty tenuous link”. 

“Humble” and “old-school” pharmacist 

The photos were eventually debunked as a hoax by non-believers, but the pharmacy’s link to the Loch Ness Monster wasn’t the only thing that made the pharmacy popular in Inverness. 

Kevin said his dad went from “humble beginnings in a wee village in the northern Scotland to becoming somebody that people trusted, valued and respected”. 

He added that his dad was a “traditional, old-school pharmacist” who always loved talking with people and was on first name terms with all his customers. 

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McEwen made his pharmacy “a hub” and worked with the other town’s pharmacies to borrow medicines from each other and socialise together. 

Kevin particularly remembers his dad’s love for chemistry as “he made his own pills, pastes and powders”.  

His ultimate goal was to discover a “cure for a hangover” using his technical skills. 

“He never managed to get it!” said Kevin, but he has kept the equipment his dad used to make his concoctions. 

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“Spatulas, weights, scales, all that kind of stuff. I use it as little ornaments in my house because they're beautiful.” 

Kevin worked on Saturdays in the pharmacy with his dad while growing up, and the rest of the family chipped in to work in there too. 

“My dad worked really hard to get to where he was,” he says. “He was really into the craft of being a pharmacist, as well as being front facing to the public.” 

Kevin said his dad wanted to go into industrial pharmacy but after learning his wife Mo was pregnant, he decided to “find something that paid well and quick”. Retail pharmacy proved to be a good fit and Kevin says he was proud to have formed a “mini empire of shops in the northeast of Scotland”. 

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Aside from Ogston’s in Inverness, he had premises in Macduff, Buckie and Banff, with only a regret that none of his children could take over the pharmacies he had established. "None of us were chemically inclined to study that way," says Kevin. 

He was also proud of being one of the first pharmacists in Inverness to dispense methadone to those undergoing maintenance therapy. 

“A lot of the pharmacies in Inverness wouldn't touch methadone because they didn't want addicts coming into the shop. My dad bucked that trend and said: ‘I want to help these people out’.” 

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Outside of pharmacy, McEwen’s other big passion was golf. He served as captain for a time at Nairn Golf Club and helped them successfully bid and host the amateur 1999 Walker Cup, where Great Britain and Ireland beat the USA by a 15-9 scoreline. 

“Becoming a part of the golf club gave him a lot of pride,” remembers Kevin. 

A family notice on Bill McEwen read “dearly loved husband of Mo, much loved dad of Kevin, Stuart and Ross, loving grandpa of Connor and Hannah, dear father-in-law of Yvonne and beloved brother of Alison”.