Sir Menzies Campbell, known affectionately as "Ming" to friends and colleagues, passed away on September 26, 2025, at the age of 84. His remarkable life bridged the worlds of elite athletics and high-stakes politics, leaving a legacy defined by speed—both on the track and in the corridors of Westminster.
Born in Glasgow on May 22, 1941, during the tumult of the Second World War, Campbell’s early life was shaped by both hardship and ambition. According to NationalWorld, he was delivered in an air raid shelter while his father, a joiner and a heavy drinker, waited outside. Raised in a tenement block, Campbell’s mother was instrumental in securing his place at the prestigious Hillhead High School, where he quickly made a name for himself in athletics and rugby. His prowess on the field earned him the nickname "Ming the Wing," a nod to his lightning-fast sprinting.
Campbell’s academic and athletic talents continued to blossom at Glasgow University, where he studied law. He joined the university’s Liberal Club, partly as a reaction against his parents’ socialism, and became its president. There, he forged lifelong friendships with future Labour leaders John Smith and Donald Dewar, as The Sun notes. But it was on the track that Campbell’s star truly began to rise. In 1961, at just 20 years old, he broke the Scottish 300 yards record, a mark previously held by Olympic gold medalist Wyndham Halswelle.
This achievement propelled Campbell onto the international stage. He competed for Great Britain in the 200 metres and the 4×100 metres relay at the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo—a time when the team was simply known as Great Britain, long before the "Team GB" moniker. He captained the Scotland team at the 1966 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Kingston, Jamaica, and twice captained the Great Britain athletics team, in 1965 and 1966. From 1967 to 1974, Campbell held the British 100 metres record, a testament to his enduring speed. In a particularly memorable 1967 race, he beat OJ Simpson, then an athlete on the rise, before Simpson’s later fame and infamy.
Campbell’s academic journey took him to Stanford University in California, which he would later describe as "a watershed in my life because it made me realise there was a world outside Glasgow," according to The Sun. Returning to Scotland, he began a legal career and, in 1970, met Elspeth, the daughter of World War Two hero Major General Roy Urquhart. Their whirlwind romance led to marriage within four weeks, and Elspeth, a divorcee with a young son, would remain by his side for over fifty years.
Politics, however, called him back in the 1970s. Campbell became chairman of the Scottish Liberal Party at just 34, but it wasn’t until 1987—after three unsuccessful attempts—that he was finally elected as Member of Parliament for North East Fife. He would serve in that role for 28 years. His first private members’ bill, as The Sun reports, called for a ban on anabolic steroids, reflecting his ongoing commitment to fair play in sport.
The formation of the Liberal Democrats in the late 1980s marked a turning point. Campbell was appointed defence spokesman in 1988, and by 1992, party leader Paddy Ashdown had made him the foreign affairs spokesman—a post he would hold for 14 years. His meticulous attention to detail made him a formidable presence, particularly during the Matrix Churchill arms-to-Iraq scandal, when the Conservative government faced accusations of supplying military equipment to Saddam Hussein in violation of its own guidelines.
Campbell’s political career was not without challenges. In 1999, he was the early favourite to succeed Ashdown as party leader, but he withdrew from the race after being diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. He underwent chemotherapy and made a full recovery, later reflecting on the experience with characteristic modesty. "I see my life as one of experience and not of achievement," he wrote in his memoirs, as quoted by The Sun.
His moment in the national spotlight came during the run-up to the 2003 Iraq War. Campbell, alongside then-leader Charles Kennedy, agonised over the party’s stance before committing the Liberal Democrats to outright opposition. "There were some sleepless nights for me and for Charles. All it needed was a company of American marines to discover two tanks of anthrax – our position would have been wholly undermined," Campbell later recalled, as cited by NationalWorld. "So it was a big risk, but we thought it was right and we thought (the war) wasn’t legal." The Lib Dems’ principled stand, amid widespread support for the invasion from both Labour and the Conservatives, gave the party a rare prominence. Their stance was ultimately vindicated when no weapons of mass destruction were found.
Behind the scenes, Campbell was also navigating the personal struggles of his friend and party leader Charles Kennedy, whose battle with alcoholism was becoming increasingly public. "I felt I was watching a slowly unfolding tragedy," Campbell admitted, according to The Sun. When Kennedy resigned in January 2006, Campbell won the leadership vote comfortably and became the first elected Lib Dem leader not to lead the party into a general election, stepping down after just 19 months amid concerns about the party’s direction and his age. "I promise not to take advantage of the youth and inexperience of my opponents," he once quipped, referencing his seniority over rivals Gordon Brown and David Cameron.
Campbell’s resignation was met with a mixture of regret and admiration. Nick Clegg, his successor, remarked that Campbell had been treated “appallingly” and was the subject of “barely disguised ageism.” Yet, Campbell himself reflected on his departure with wry humour: "My resignation was followed by canonisation," he wrote.
After stepping down as an MP in 2015, Campbell was made a life peer as Baron Campbell of Pittenweem. His wife Elspeth passed away in 2023, marking the end of a partnership that had spanned more than half a century. Campbell’s own words perhaps best capture the arc of his life: a journey marked not just by achievement, but by experience—on the track, in Parliament, and beyond.
Sir Menzies Campbell’s story is one of resilience, principle, and quiet determination—a life lived at full speed, in every sense of the phrase.
