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Why Blue Bird?

Malcolm Campbell gave his first racing cars boring names before being captivated by the theme of Maeterlinck’s Symbolist operatic fantasy, The Blue Bird, in 1912.

The pursuit of happiness, so close, yet tantalisingly beyond reach, seemed to symbolise his own determined pursuit of ever faster speeds.

He appropriated the name, colour, and logo, to build his own ‘brand’ and legend. All his subsequent cars, hydroplanes, and personal yachts were named Blue Bird.

ruskin museum bluebird

Why Bluebird?

Following Malcolm’s death, Donald changed the name to Bluebird, to differentiate his cars and hydroplanes from those of his father.

Why ‘K’? and why the figure 8 on its side?

The letter ‘K’ is the symbol used by Lloyds for the insurance class of boats with unlimited engine power.

Unlimited can also mean infinite. The rotation of the figure 8 is the infinity symbol.

Malcolm’s first World Water Speed Record-breaking hydroplane was Blue Bird K3.

Its faster successor was Bluebird K4.

Two other hydroplanes had been registered in the ‘K’ class before Donald Campbell’s iconic Bluebird K7 began her legendary career.

Why Coniston Water?

Summer 1939: Malcolm was convinced that war with Germany was imminent, and that continental Europe would soon be out of bounds for further record attempts. This ruled out the Italian and Swiss lakes.

Leo Villa was sent to locate possible British alternatives.

Loch Ness was too distant; Loch Lomond  too busy; Windermere was unlucky because of Segrave’s fatal crash in 1930; Ullswater was crooked, and had obstructive islands.

Coniston Water was fjord-like, deep and straight, with no inconvenient islands, and it was five miles long.

Pier Cottage had a slipway, built for S.Y. Gondola, and provided an ideal, secure base.

The Campbell’s used that base regularly between 1939 and 1967, [apart from 1947, when larger premises were needed for ‘The Coniston Slipper’, the jet-engined K4.

Who is Mr Whoppit?

‘The Story of Woppit’ was a popular 1950s cartoon strip in the Hulton children’s comic, Robin. It featured the adventures of a bear. In 1956, Merrythought made a 9 inch tall toy ‘Woppit’ teddy-bear; the bear wore a red felt jacket.

Gina Campbell with Mr Whoppit at the Ruskin Museum 2019

Donald Campbell’s business manager thought he should have a mascot, and gave him a ‘Woppit’, soon re-named, more formally, and with an ‘h’ added, Mr Whoppit, who proudly wore the Bluebird logo, hand-embroidered on his coat.

This lucky mascot was carried in all of Donald Campbell’s Record attempts, on Water and Land, and miraculously floated to the surface after Bluebird K7’s fatal crash on 4 January 1967.

Mr Whoppit was later carried aboard Gina Campbell’s power-boats during her various Record attempts.

In the 1990s Merrythought produced a second edition of  5,000 teddy-bears, this time re-branded as ‘Mr Whoppit’ after Donald Campbell’s famous mascot, and now sporting the Bluebird badge.