Nessie expert dies at 81

Press, 4 July 1983, Page 10

Nessie expert dies at 81

NZPA London The man whose newspaper “scoop” sparked the Loch Ness monster legend, has died, aged 81, at his lochside cottage at Inverawe, Fort Augustus, in Scotland. Alex Campbell, a retired water bailiff, was the £25 ($59) a year district news correspondent with the local weekly newspaper when he broke the story in May, 1933, reports the “Sunday Express.” He interviewed a local hotelier, John Mackay and his wife Donaldina, now both in their 80s, after she had reported seeing something on the loch surface as they drove home to Drum-

nadrochit. Mr Campbell wrote in the May 2, 1933, edition of the “Inverness Courier”: “The creature disported itself, rolling and plunging for fully a minute, its body resembling that of a whale and the water cascading and churning like a simmering cauldron. Soon, however, it disappeared in a boiling mass of foam.” Since then, more than 3000 sightings have been claimed — some by Mr Campbell, who became a Nessie expert, appearing on television.

His wife, Mary, aged 73, said: “Nessie was the biggest scoop Alex could have hoped for. She has been very good to him.”