His daughter, Gina, is spearheading the campaign to have the boat rebuilt.

She is the third generation of the Campbell family to be drawn into the world of land speed record attempts – following her father Donald and his father, Malcolm, both land speed record holders.

Trackside’s Keith Collantine looks back on the exceptional achievements of the Campbell family.

Britons have always been fascinated with speed, and that’s especially true of the famous Campbell family.

Between the first and second World Warsm, Malcolm Campbell, a motoring journalist from Surrey, broke the land speed record nine times.

His first record may not seem much by modern standards – he reached 233.86kph (146.16mph) on September 25th, 1924. By his final record eleven years later, driving the latest iteration of his ‘Bluebird’ car, he had more than doubled the record to 481.81mph (301.13mph).

After World War II it fell upon son Donald to uphold the reputation of the family – and the nation. The land speed record was by then dominated by Americans George Eyston and John Cobb.

The younger Campbell resurrected the Bluebird name and made a record attempt with a new car in September 1960. But it ended in disaster when the car snapped out of control at 584kph (365mph), flipped and crashed. Campbell survived with a fractured skull.

Undaunted, Campbell was determined to re-claim the record. Four years later he returned to attack it once again, setting a mark of 644.96kph (403.10mph).

There is some dispute over whether this established a new record or not. The Americans insisted that Craig Breedlove’s 651.92kph (407.45mph) effort the previous August was a valid record – the British argued that, as his vehicle was a tricycle, it did not.

On the last day of 1964 he took to the waters of Lake Dumbleyung in Perth, Australia, and set a new water speed record of 444.71kph (276.33mph) – making him arguably the only person to simultaneously hold the land and water speed records.

Three years later he set out again to break his own water speed record in the new Bluebird K7 at Lake Coniston. But as the speed built the boat’s nose lifted unexpectedly. Campbell’s voice crackled over the intercom: “She’s going, she’s going.”

The Bluebird pitched high into the air and smashed onto the surface of the water, killing Campbell instantly.

It sank to the bottom of the Coniston waters, taking his body with it. It was not recovered until a team of divers reached the wreck in 2000, and raised it to the surface.

The Campbell family’s preoccupation with speed was genetic – and knew no gender. Donald’s daughter Gina – 17 at the time of his death – followed the footsteps of her father to break the ladies’ water speed record off the coast of New Zealand in August 1990.

Now she is pursuing National Lottery funding to have the Bluebird K7 Donald Campbell died in restored – at a cost of £750,000. But that application was rejected last week.

Gina Campbell said: “We've had four years of talking to the Heritage Lottery Fund and a lot of time, money and effort's been wasted."

“We now seem to have an apathy to winning. But my father was a winner who went out in a blaze as a hero.”

She’s right – and I hope this setback doesn’t prevent her realising her dream of re-creating that famous craft.

Do you think Lottery funding should be used to restore the Bluebird K7? Let us know.