Fleetwood man's quest to unravel legend of Loch Ness Monster
It was biting cold on the banks of Loch Ness but Frank Searle, who eventually ended up in Fleetwood couldn’t afford to let the weather beat him in his quest to unravel the legend of the Loch Ness Monster.Frank was an enigmatic photographer and he spent much of the 1970s camping in a caravan on the edge of the cold loch, keeping an eye out for anything that might appear from the inky, murky depths. He was always keen to spot the monster and was mostly found scanning the ripples through powerful binoculars.
Frank, who died in Fleetwood at the age of 85, once told how he saw the monster’s big back breaking the surface out towards the middle of the lake. There were some American tourists with him at the time, and they were over the moon. They were lucky, he said, to see it.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdBorn in the east end of London, Frank joined the army on leaving school before the Second World War.
In the early part of the conflict he was an anti-tank gunner in North Africa, fighting against the Italians before joining the newly-formed Parachute Regiment. He later worked with the Long Range Desert Group and the Small Boat Service. After a raid against the Germans in the eastern Mediterranean, Mr Searle was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal. He was a sergeant at the time.
With the Paras for the invasion of Sicily he gained a field commission after his unit sustained heavy casualties and after the successful advance in Southern Italy he resumed special operations, working behind enemy lines.
He also saw service in Yugoslavia and Malaya and promoted to captain, was involved in action in Korea.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdHe was, however, invalided out of the army in 1957 and worked as a supervisory role for a firm of London fruiterers.
That was until his fascination with the Scottish legend bubbled to the surface.
For the years that followed, Frank was ever alert for a glimpse of the creature which inspired him to give up his job and devote his life to monster watching.
Totting up, by 1975 he had spent 20,000 hours and had logged 24 sightings and pictures.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdThe photographs ranged from a fuzzy hump to an amazing dinosaur-like creature rearing upwards from the water.
And Frank had preserved the images under plastic in his make-shitft shed which he referred to as his HQ. During his time in his caravan, Frank saw enthusiasts come and go.
A team from Japan turned up one day and scoured the loch in an old herring boat. Like something out of a movie, he claimed a man from Texas came all the way from America to use a yellow submarine as a look-out point. He always dissed their efforts though because further than 20 feet underwater, there was nothing to be seen. It was full of peat particles.
He estimated there were about 20 monsters in the loch, descended from 30-foot long prehistoric creatures trapped inland when volcanic eruptions sealed Loch Ness from the sea, 7,000 years ago.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdThe pictures he created of the monster still remain among the most famous images that claim to have captured the beast. But they are now widely believed to have been manufactured, although this has never been conclusively proved.
Frank moved back to Fleetwood in 1980 and lived out his years in relative anonymity in the port.