Marmaduke Arundel "Duke" Wetherell (1883[1] – 25 February 1939) was a British–South African actor, screenwriter, producer, film director and big-game hunter.
Born in Bodmin, Cornwall, Wetherell acted in both British and South African films during the silent era.
[3] He produced, directed and played the lead role in his productions of Livingstone (1925) and Robinson Crusoe (1927).
To get revenge on the Mail, Wetherell perpetrated the hoax "surgeon's photograph" of the Loch Ness Monster with his son Ian (who bought the material for the fake and took the photos), son-in-law Christian Spurling (a sculpture specialist), and Maurice Chambers (an insurance agent), taking a picture of a toy submarine made of plastic wood and passing it off as the monster.
[7] Chambers gave the photographic plates to surgeon Robert Kenneth Wilson, a friend of his who enjoyed "a good practical joke".