Sir Malcolm Campbell was an English racing motorist and motoring journalist.
He gained the world speed record on land and on water at various times during the
1920s and 1930s using vehicles called Blue Bird, including a 1921 Grand Prix
Sunbeam. His son, Donald Campbell, carried on the family tradition by
holding both land speed and water speed records.
Early life Malcolm Campbell was born in
Chislehurst, Kent in 1885, the only son of William Campbell, a Hatton Garden
diamond seller. He attended the independent Uppingham School. In
Germany, learning the diamond trade, he gained an interest in motorbikes and
races. Returning to England, he worked for two years at Lloyd's of London for
no pay, then for another year at one pound a week. Between 1906 and 1908, he
won all three London to Lakes End Trials. In 1910 he began racing cars at
Brooklands. He christened his car Blue Bird, painting it blue, after seeing the
play The Blue Bird by Maurice Maeterlinck at the Haymarket Theatre. He
married Marjorie D. Knott in 1913 but divorced two years later.He married
Dorothy Evelyn Whittall in 1920 in Westminster and their son Donald was
born in 1921, and they had a daughter, Jean, in 1923. He was knighted in 1931.
They divorced in 1940. He married Betty Nicory in Aug 1945 in Chelsea.
Military service He served in World War I in the Queen's
Own Royal West Kent Regiment and in the Royal Flying Corps.
During the late 1930s and the early years of World War II, he commanded the
Provost Company of the 56th Division of the Territorial Army. From 1940 to 1942
he commanded the Military Police contingent of the Coats Mission to
evacuate King George VI, Queen Elizabeth and their immediate family in the event
of German invasion. Grand Prix career
He competed in Grand Prix motor racing, winning the 1927 and 1928 Grand Prix de
Boulogne in France driving a Bugatti T37A.
Land speed record He broke the land speed record for the
first time in 1924 at 146.16 mph at Pendine Sands near Carmarthen Bay in a
350HP V12 Sunbeam, now on display at the National Motor Museum, Beaulieu.
Campbell broke nine land speed records between 1924 and 1935, with three at
Pendine Sands and five at Daytona Beach. His first two records were driving a
racing car built by Sunbeam. On 4 February 1927 Campbell set the land
speed record at Pendine Sands, covering the Flying Kilometre at 174.883 mph and
the Flying Mile in 174.224 mph, in the Napier-Campbell Blue Bird.
He set his final land speed record at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah on 3
September 1935, and was the first person to drive an automobile over 300 mph,
averaging 301.337 mph in two passes. Water speed records
He developed and flotation tested Blue Bird on Tilgate Lake, in Tilgate Park,
Crawley. He set the water speed record four times, his highest speed being
141.740 mph in the Blue Bird K4. He set the record on 19 August 1939 on Coniston
Water, England. Death
He died after a series of strokes in 1948 in Reigate, Surrey, aged 63 years.
He was one of the few land speed record holders of his era to die of natural
causes, as so many had died in crashes. His versatile racing on different
vehicles made him internationally famous.
Awards In 1931 on his return from Daytona where
he set a land speed record of 245.736 mph, he was given a civic welcome and a
Mansion House banquet in London, and was knighted by King George V.
He was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1990.
He was awarded the Segrave Trophy in 1933 and 1939.
He was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1994.
An English Heritage blue plaque commemorates Campbell and his son at
Canbury School, Kingston Hill, Kingston-upon Thames, where they lived.
Politics He stood for Parliament without success
at the 1935 general election in Deptford for the Conservative Party, despite his
links to the British Union of Fascists. Reportedly, he once adorned his car with
a Fascist pennant of the London Volunteer Transport Service, though
there has been no photographic evidence to support this claim.
References External links
www.bluebirdspeedrecords.com www.SirMalcolmCampbell.com
Newspaper articles and pic of 1935 land speed record
www.racingcampbells.com – dedicated to the memory of Campbell and his son
Donald Biography
Find-A-Grave profile for Malcolm Campbell