The Loch Ness monster, 1934 - a picture from the past

This photograph reporting to be of the Loch Ness monster was published in the Daily Mail newspaper in 1934. It became known as the 'Surgeon's Photograph' after Colonel Wilson, who offered the picture to the paper, refused to have his name associated with it. The image is, in fact of a Woolworth's toy submarine with a sculpted wooden head attached and was made by Chris Spurling. Spurling later confessed that the conspiracy was hatched by his father-in-law, the hunter Marmaduke Wetherell, who was hired by the Mail to find the monster and after faking his own sighting, was publicly humiliated by his employer. He allegedly hatched the elaborate plan to get his revenge on the paper
Illustration: Photograph: Keystone/ Getty Images