A pilot in the Royal Flying Corps during World War I, Campbell became interested in automobile racing. From 1924, when he attained 146.16 miles per hour (235.22 km per hour), through 1935, he established world land-speed records on nine occasions. On Sept. 3, 1935, at the Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah, his automobile was timed at 301.1292 miles per hour, the first officially clocked land-vehicle performance exceeding 300 miles per hour.

In 1937 Sir Malcolm captured the world's water-speed record at 129.5 miles per hour. In 1938 he raised the record to 130.93 miles per hour, and finally, on Aug. 19, 1939, on Coniston Water, Lancashire, he set the record of 141.74 miles per hour that he held when he died. His son Donald Malcolm Campbell set subsequent land- and water-speed records.

Each of Campbell's racing cars and hydroplanes was named Bluebird for the play L'Oiseau bleu (“The Bluebird”), by the Belgian dramatist Maurice Maeterlinck. Campbell was knighted in 1931.