Donald Campbell was born on 23rd March 1921, at ‘Canbury’ on Kingston Hill. Whilst the birth was in progress, his father Malcolm was building a dog kennel in a garage where he kept six cars!
In September 1927 when six and a half years old, he was sent to Manor House Preparatory School in Horsham, Sussex, before then a young nursery governess looked after him and his younger sister Jean.
When he was nine years and nine months old, he left Manor House Preparatory School, and started at St. Peter’s Preparatory School, and started in the Easter term in 1932 where he remained there until July 1934.
Whilst at St. Peters, he was an individualist and a boy who liked to get his own way, and in doing so he was inclined to trample on others. Although he admired his father, he tended to trade on his name. He used to box and showed ‘a fine display of courage and determination’. He participated in school plays and a member of the school’s shooting team and held the St. Peter’s Silver Medal with a record score of 208 out of a possible 210 points.
In September 1934, he attended Uppingham Public School, where his father left in 1901. He arrived in the dormitory where he found his father’s initials scratched onto a beam, he therefore added his own ’DMC’. He did not distinguish himself and remained in the same form for three consecutive years, during this time his father continued to set Land Speed Records, and supplemented his pocket money by selling autographs of his famous father.
When he was sixteen he contracted German Measles, and developed Rheumatic Fever, which would later haunt him throughout his life.
When asked him what sort of career he had in mind, he surprised his father by saying he wanted to join the Royal Air Force, whether his heart would stand the strains and stresses, would be doubtful. Sir Malcolm persuaded him to join Lloyds Insurance Brokers, where he was an office boy in the Motor Department starting on £1 a week.
In June 1939, whilst riding a motorbike he had an accident, he was flung from the saddle and suffered a fractured skull, and hospitalised for several weeks. As a result, his father commissioned a crash helmet for him to wear, which was unheard of in those days.
On September 4th 1939, the day after war was declared on Germany, he embarked on a career in the RAF. He passed the preliminary medical exam, but failed to inform that the had suffered Rheumatic Fever. By early 1940, he was told to report to RAF Cardington near Bedford and given the number A.C.H. 964147 and given the rank of U/T Pilot.
He was referred to RAF Halton Hospital, where a cardiogram revealed that his heart was not up to the required standard, and was turned down for flying and left the RAF at the age of nineteen.
Shortly afterwards, whilst on a motor cycle, he collided with a Canadian army truck and suffered a second fractured skull, after his recovery and for the rest of the war years, he became an assistant to the aircraft sales manager of Briggs Motor Bodies Ltd, and later became a maintenance engineer for the company.
After the war, he settled down to a business life and began to make wood-working machinery in a back yard. He joined the engineering company at Redhill, Surrey, in which he invested £1,200, the money he’d saved in the war years. In 1948 the company moved to Horley.
After Sir Malcolm’s death in 1948, there was an auction of his effects. Bluebird K3, was sold to a motor dealer called Simpson, Donald heard that the American Henry Kaiser was building a boat to attack Sir Malcolm’s water speed records.
He purchased Bluebird K4 and the 1935 Blue Bird car for a nominal sum, and wanted to ‘keep the flag flying’, and the idea thrilled Leo. They visited Peter du Cane, the managing-director of Vosper’s, who had been making adjustments to the jet-powered K4 for Sir Malcolm, sadly never had the opportunity to test these. K4 was converted back to it’s 1939 configuration, and by July 1949, Donald and his team were at Coniston.
Between 1949 - 1951, Bluebird K4 went through many modifications, and in 1951 won the Oltranza Cup. In 1951 whilst at Coniston, she hit a submerged railway sleeper or log and sank. The boat was recovered but was a write off. Bluebird was broken up on the shore, the hull was taken for storage in Bill Coley’s yard.
This was a bitter blow to Donald and the team, after three years they had nothing to show for it, apart from a damaged bank balance. It had however, given him the confidence and showed potential sponsors that given the right conditions, Campbell could be a future record breaker.
In 1951, Donald and Leo both became restless in their nine to five job at Kines. John Cobb announced he was after the water speed record, to go with his current land speed record in 1939. Campbell believed that with Cobb, Reid Railton and Peter Du Cane on board, they would be successful.
Donald suddenly announced that they build a boat to bring the Harmsworth Trophy back to England after it had been dominated by the United States.
By 1952, Norris Brothers Ltd - consultant engineers had been formed. On September 29th 1952, Cobb was killed as he attempted to break the record, he was on his return run travelling over 200mph, Cobb received some terrible injuries and died of shock.
Although tragic, this provided Donald an opportunity. He approached the Norris brothers to design a new craft, and she was to use a jet engine and built of metal. The new craft Bluebird K7 was handed over to Donald Campbell on the 26th November 1954, after being unveiled by Lady Wakefield.
After being launched on Ullswater in February 1955, it became obvious that many modifications needed to be made and on July On 23rd 1955, Campbell averaged 202.32 mph, the average of the speed was enough to break Stanley Sayer’s record in Slo Mo Shun.
On 16th November 1955, on Lake Mead he achieved a new record of 216.2 mph. After K7’s return from Las Vegas, modifications were made and between 1956 and 1959, Donald raised the water speed record 4 times to 260.35mph on Coniston Water
In 1960, he launched his new project a revolutionary car called Bluebird CN7. This was taken to the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, and after several runs, Campbell accelerated too fast and around speeds in excess of 250-350mph, the car crashed. Donald received a fractured skull, a burst eardrum and various other injuries. Whilst still in hospital, Campbell asked about the car and British industrialists re-built it, with the addition of a tail fin for stability.
In 1963/64, he took the car to Lake Eyre, a dried salt lake in Southern Australia, but when the team arrived the weather turned foul and rained heavily destroying the car’s tracks. Finally on July 17th 1964, Campbell achieved 403.1mph, in less than ideal circumstances.
His backers had criticised his running of this project, and after a potential libel suit with Sir Alfred Owen, it left Campbell feeling bitter. Several sponsors such as British Petroleum also criticised him, and he never fully recovered from this.
On New Years Eve 1964, at Lake Dumbleyung he achieved a water speed record of 276.30 mph. He called for a minute’s silence for his late father, who’d died on New Years Eve in 1948. This was his finest moment, he had done the double, he’d broken the land and water speed record in one calendar year, even to this day no one has surpassed this achievement.
In what should have been his finest moment, it went virtually unrecognised in Britain, and had cost Campbell financially. He had various schemes plans such as a Campbell Speed Museum, a yachting marina, a supersonic land speed record car and a family sized boat called the Bluebird Jet Star.
After Bluebird CN7 was severely damaged in 1966, and sponsors were not interested in his supersonic car, he turned his attention to breaking 300mph on water, and Bluebird K7 was modified.
His team returned to Coniston Water in 1966, and after problems with the engine, the weather and mechanical problems generally, he finally looked like he could break the water speed record on the 4th January 1967.
The conditions were glass like, the previous night he had been playing patience and turned over the ace of spades and queen of spades, being a superstitious man, he remembered that Mary Queen Of Scots had drawn these cards the night before she was be-headed. Donald took this as a bad omen, and the press liked to gloat on this.
On his first run he achieved 297mph. He swung the boat round before refueling and started tramping up the lake, she was going very fast and her planning points were out of the water. Just before the end of the measured kilometre, she took off, and crashed.
Bluebird K7 broke into two separate pieces and sunk along with the skipper, he was still doing his commentary right to the end. A brave and heroic man died that day, and the Campbell legend was created.
Divers found the boat in 140 feet of water, and found that she had split in two halves. His widow Tonia Burn-Campbell wished that the ‘skipper stays with his boat, and the boat stays with the skipper’, and the body of Donald and Bluebird remained in Coniston Water until March 2001.
Like his father, he had been married three times. His married his first wife Daphne Harvey in 1945 and divorced her in 1952, he married his second wife Dorothy McClegg in 1952 and was divorced in 1957, and married his third Tonia Bern-Campbell in 1958, who he left as a widow in 1967. He is survived by his only daughter Gina Campbell, from his first marriage.
On January 28th, 1967, it was announced in the London Gazette that he had been awarded the Queen’s Commendation for Gallantry, for ‘his courage and determination in attacking the world water speed record’. There was widespread feeling that this fell short of Campbell’s gallant attempt and patronism, but under existing rules he could not receive the George Cross or the Albert Medal, which are the two highest posthumous awards given to civilians, as he had not saved anybody’s life.
Bluebird K7 was rediscovered in February 2001, by a team of divers led by Bill Smith, Bluebird K7 was raised in March 2001, and the K7 was brought back to the media’s interest. In May 2001, Donald’s body was finally recovered, and a post mortem was carried out.
On September 12th 2001, Donald was finally laid to rest in St Andrew’s new churchyard in Coniston, which is situated behind the Crown Hotel.
© John Bullivant
Acknowledgements:
‘Bluebirds- The Story Of The Campbell Dynasty’ by Gina Campbell & Michael Meach
‘With Campbell At Coniston’ by Arthur Knowles
'The Record Breakers - Sir Malcolm and Donald Campbell Land and Water Speed Kings of the 20th Century' by Leo Villa and Tony Gray
'The World Water Speed Record' by Leo Villa and Kevin Desmond
‘Donald Campbell - An Informal Biography’ by Douglas Young-James
pictures: Mike Varndell collection
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