16 Facts About Malcolm Campbell

Major Sir Malcolm Campbell was a British racing motorist and motoring journalist.

Malcolm Campbell gained the world speed record on land and on water at various times, using vehicles called Blue Bird, including a 1921 Grand Prix Sunbeam.

Malcolm Campbell christened his car Blue Bird, painting it blue, after seeing the play The Blue Bird by Maurice Maeterlinck at the Haymarket Theatre.

Malcolm Campbell married Marjorie Dagmar Knott in 1913, but they divorced two years later.

Malcolm Campbell then married Dorothy Evelyn Whittall in 1920; their son Donald was born in 1921, and their daughter, Jean, in 1923.

Malcolm Campbell wrote a number of "motoring mystery" novels including Salute to the Gods which was the source material for the 1939 motion picture Burn 'Em Up O'Connor.

At the outbreak of the First World War, Malcolm Campbell initially enlisted as a motorcycle dispatch rider and fought at the Battle of Mons in August 1914.

Malcolm Campbell was drafted into the Royal Flying Corps, where he was a ferry pilot, for his instructors believed he was too clumsy to make the grade as a fighter pilot.

On 16 December 1945, having attained the age limit of 60, Malcolm Campbell relinquished his commission and was granted the honorary rank of major.

Malcolm Campbell competed in Grand Prix motor racing, winning the 1927 and 1928 Grand Prix de Boulogne in France driving a Bugatti T37A.

Malcolm Campbell broke nine land speed records between 1924 and 1935, with three at Pendine Sands and five at Daytona Beach.

Malcolm Campbell developed and flotation-tested Blue Bird on Tilgate Lake, in Tilgate Park, Crawley.

Malcolm Campbell set the record on 19 August 1939 on Coniston Water, Lancashire.

Malcolm Campbell 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.

Malcolm Campbell died after a series of strokes in 1948 in Reigate, Surrey, aged 63.

Malcolm Campbell was one of the few land speed record holders of his era to die of natural causes, for so many had died in crashes.