A pharmacist who developed a wonderful chemistry with whole generations of Inverness townsfolk was laid to rest on Friday last week.
Bill McEwen, past owner of Wm Ogston’s chemists, is fondly remembered by a great many for his warm and kind nature and as a consummate gentleman of the old town centre.
He is also credited with playing a part in helping Nairn Golf Club, where he served as captain, successfully bid to host the 1999 Walker Cup.
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What far fewer of his friends and acquaintances will be aware of is Bill’s unlikely brush – of sorts – with the Loch Ness Monster.
The 85-year-old, who died peacefully at his home in Westhill just before Christmas, ran Ogston’s at 18 Union Street with great success from 1971 to 1997 after buying the business from a previous owner called Santiago Penney.
Under Bill’s stewardship, the 19th century founded chemist store was renowned for friendly service, attracting customer loyalty from thousands.
In the days before national chains and pharmaceutical giants took a firm grip on the market, Bill would be seen daily behind the counter, mixing powders and potions and making the medicines and tablets himself.
There in the basement, amid dusty storage cupboards, he unexpectedly unearthed original photographic plates from the world’s most infamous Nessie depiction, the Surgeon’s Photograph of 1933.
“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,” Bill’s eldest son of three, Kevin, recalls.
The postcards chemist Bill McEwen printed using the original photographic plates of the infamous hoax Surgeon’s picture of Nessie.The rear of the postcards Bill crafted using the photographic plates of the infamous Surgeon’s Nessie picture.
“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!”
Supposedly taken by Robert Kenneth Wilson, a London gynaecologist, the picture was published in the Daily Mail on April 21, 1934.
For almost 60 years, the image was considered by many to be solid proof of the beast’s existence, only to be finally exposed in 1991 as a fake crafted from a toy submarine.
The fake Surgeon’s photograph of ‘Nessie’
As the ex-BBC newsreader turned monster hunter Nicholas Witchell recounted in his 1975 tome, The Loch Ness Story, Wilson brought in the plate negatives for Ogston’s then-owner George Morrison to develop.
After the job was completed, Wilson allowed Morrison to keep some, including a far less convincing second image.
Rediscovered by Bill, fresh scrutiny would be cast on them in the years that followed.
Bill McEwen at home.
Perhaps befitting of the mysterious Loch Ness beast, when it came to clearing out Ogston’s in 1997, the photographic plates were nowhere to be found.
“I searched the place from top to bottom for them before we sold Ogston’s, but their whereabouts remain a mystery,” Kevin says.
Bill was born in Huntly on February 3, 1939, to parents Alistair and Molly, but when war was declared his dad went off to serve. Captured at Dunkirk, Alistair was transported to a prisoner of war camp in Poland.
Bill, as a consequence, was raised and, in Kevin’s words, “spoiled rotten by a bunch of women” including mum Molly, his aunties and granny. It didn’t seem to do him too much harm.
The family moved to Bonar Bridge when Alistair returned from the war to become a draper with the Co-op, as Bill’s sister Alison was born.
Bill went to Dornoch Academy and his academic talents then took him to Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, where he met wife Mo.
Bill McEwen graduated from Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen.
The couple married in 1964 and in 2024 celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary.
Work took Bill first to London but when Kevin was born they decided to return to Scotland and settled in Kirkcudbright, Dumfries and Galloway.
There Bill’s middle son Stuart was born and another move, to Ayrshire, coincided with the arrival of youngest sibling Ross.
Bill McEwen (centre) and family. Left to right: Kevin, Ross, Mo and Stuart McEwen.
Then came a return to the Highlands in 1971 and, with career success having brought a certain degree of affluence, Bill was able to make Ogston’s his first and favourite purchase in a chain of family shops stretching from Inverness to Buckie, Macduff and Banff.
Kevin said: “There was a little cabal of chemists like Ogston’s on Union Street and Wilson’s on Queensgate.
“Dad was a well-kent face among all the townsfolk. In those days, Inverness was an old-fashioned town with a High Street, no shopping malls.
“They used to make up the potions and the pastes on-site, rather than have prescription tablets. My dad would be through the back making tablets and pastes, and used to have us in the shop as errand boys. People would take the bottles back and we would have to wash them out.
Bill McEwen at work at Ogston’s chemists in Union Street, Inverness, in the days when many medicines, pills and potions were still made on site.Now Kiku hairdressers, Bill McEwen’s chemists shop was at 18 Union Street.
“I guess we had thousands of people passing in and out of the doors. Once you used one chemist you liked, it tended to be yours for life.”
Bill built up a big circle of friends through his professional and social life, always enjoying evenings out with his beloved Mo and many memorable trips abroad with the family.
The couple were active members of the charitable local round table and Mo became president of the National Association of Ladies Circles.
Unquestionably, though, Bill’s greatest love outside of family was golf.
“The number one, massive interest for dad was the golf,” Kevin recalls.
“He was captain at Nairn Golf Club from 1995 to 1997, which was quite a big deal. There was a bit of rivalry between the Inverness and Nairn clubs, but he always liked the Nairn course better than Culcabock.
Bill, at his favourite haunt, Nairn Golf Club.
“He was instrumental in quite a few good things happening at Nairn. He proposed the creation of the Bulmer Room, an income-generating board and function room.
“He was also part of the team that organised the 1999 Walker Cup when Great Britain and Ireland defeated the USA 15-9.
“Over the last couple of years, dad naturally became a little bit more reclusive while he was ill, but he was a real social animal when he was younger.
“It was all about going out, having fun, his golf, friends and family.
“He was hoping one of his boys would take over the reins from him, but none of us were inclined, so he had to let the businesses go.
“Ogston’s was the one that meant the most to him and was last to go.
Bill was rarely happier than with a golf club in hand.
“The way he seems to have been remembered in all the cards we’ve been getting since he died is that he was a kind and gentle man – a gentleman in the truest sense.
“That’s really nice for us to hear.”
Management at Nairn Golf Club paid tribute to Bill and his part in the club’s growth and success, saying: “Bill was a very well-respected captain who was heavily involved in the development of Nairn Golf Club as a destination, including the hosting of the 1999 Walker Cup.
“He will be very sadly missed and our thoughts are with his family.”
Bill’s funeral notice read:
MCEWEN
MCEWEN Peacefully, at home, after a short illness, on 22nd December, 2024, Bill McEwen, aged 85 years, 36 Burn Brae Crescent, Inverness (retired Pharmacist and owner of Ogston’s Chemist, 18 Union Street, Inverness and past Captain of Nairn Golf Club). 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. Funeral private at Bill’s request. Donations in memory of Bill can be made to Sunflower Home Care (part of Highland Hospice). Arrangements by John Fraser & Son of Chapel Street, Inverness.