Donald Campbell
The story of Campbell's last attempt at the water speed record on Coniston Water was told in the BBC television film "Across the Lake" in 1988, with Anthony Hopkins as Campbell. Nine years earlier, Robert Hardy had played Campbell's father, Sir Malcolm Campbell, in the "BBC2 Playhouse" television drama "Speed King"; both were written by Roger Milner and produced by Innes Lloyd. In 2003, the BBC showed a documentary reconstruction of Campbell's fateful water-speed record attempt in an episode of "Days That Shook the World". It featured a mixture of modern reconstruction and original film footage. All of the original colour clips were taken from a film capturing the event, "Campbell at Coniston" by John Lomax, a local amateur filmmaker from Wallasey, England. Lomax's film won awards worldwide in the late 1960s for recording the final weeks of Campbell's life.
Donald Campbell (Royal Navy officer)
Born the eldest son of Colin Campbell of Auchendoun, Argyll, Campbell joined the Royal Navy on 4 June 1791. He became commander of the schooner HMS "Tobago" in February 1805, the packet boat HMS "Lily" in September 1805 and the sloop HMS "Pert" in May 1807. He went on to be command the sloop HMS Espiegle in September 1809, the sloop HMS "Port d'Espagne" in April 1810 and the fifth-rate HMS "Rosamond" in September 1810. He became commander-in-chief of the Leeward Islands Station in 1818 and Inspecting-Commander in the Coast Guard in 1822 before retiring in 1832.