Malcolm Campbell, in full Sir Malcolm Campbell, (born March 11, 1885, Chislehurst, Kent [now in Greater London], England—died December 31, 1948, Reigate, Surrey), British automobile-racing driver who set world pace information on land and on water.
A pilot within the Royal Flying Corps throughout World War I, Campbell grew to become excited by car racing. From 1924, when he attained 146.16 miles (235.22 km) per hour, via 1935, he established world land-speed information on 9 events. On September 3, 1935, on the Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah, his car was timed at 301.1292 miles (484.62 km) per hour, the primary formally clocked land-vehicle efficiency exceeding 300 miles (483 km) per hour.
In 1937 Sir Malcolm captured the world’s water-speed document at 129.5 miles (208.41 km) per hour. In 1938 on Lake Hallwil in Switzerland, he raised the document to 130.93 miles per hour, and at last, on August 19, 1939, on Coniston Water in Lancashire, he set the document of 141.74 miles (228.11 km) per hour that he held when he died. His son Donald Malcolm Campbell set subsequent land- and water-speed information.
Each of Campbell’s racing automobiles and hydroplanes was named Bluebird, for the play L’Oiseau bleu (“The Bluebird”) by the Belgian dramatist Maurice Maeterlinck. Campbell was knighted in 1931.