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Digby George Gerahty (3 April 1898 – 6 November 1981), who wrote under the pen-names of Robert Standish and Stephen Lister, was an English novelist and short story writer most productive during the 1940s and 1950s. He was also a featured contributor to the Saturday Evening Post. His novels include Elephant Walk, which was later made into a film starring Elizabeth Taylor.[1] In the semi-autobiographical Marise (1950), Gerahty (writing as "Stephen Lister") claimed that he and two publicist colleagues had covertly "invented" the Loch Ness Monster in 1933 as part of a contract to improve business for local hotels; he repeated his claim to Henry Bauer, a researcher, in 1980.[2]
He was born in 1898 in Isleworth,[3][4] the son of George and Laura. He was the elder brother of the actor Leslie Marsh Gerahty (better known as Garry Marsh) and the younger brother of the journalist Cecil Gerahty.[5]
Upon leaving school he went to India to work the tea plantations. He joined the Royal Air Force on 7 July 1917[6] and served until 15 February 1919, leaving with a temporary commission as 2nd lieutenant.[7] After World War One he worked as Reuters correspondent in Japan, followed by periods in China and Siberia. At various points of his life he lived in or travelled through Malaya, the Dutch East Indies, Australia and New Zealand.
He was first married in 1934[8] with a second marriage, to Ethyle R D Campbell, in 1938, Paddington.[9]
Gerahty died at his home in Valbonne, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, in the South of France, aged 83.[1][10]
