Heroes are created by public demand, sometimes out of the scantiest materials.
Gerald White Johnson
American Heroes and Hero Worship
Donald Campbell was a hero only by his own demand and not by his own assessment, for the materials were scanty indeed.
As a child in England, Campbell had rheumatic fever, and it affected his heart. During World War II, he was invalided out of the Royal Air Force after he had been accepted for pilot training. All his young life he lived in the shadow of a robust, rich and famous father: Sir Malcolm Campbell, gentleman sportsman, holder of nine...