Donald Wingfield Malcolm was born on 12 Mar 1907. He was educated at Clifton College, and at Trinity College, Oxford, where he took a degree in Agriculture. He entered the Tanganyikan (Tanzanian) Civil Service in 1928 and became Assistant District Officer in Mwanza in 1930. During the period 1934-1935, he carried out a survey of the gum industry in East Africa and the Sudan and his report, 'Gum and Gum Arabic', was published in Mar 1935. Later in that year, he became Private Secretary to Sir Malcolm (later Lord) Hailey, Director of the African Research Survey, and accompanied him on his tour of Africa, south of the Sahara, during 1935 and 1936. In 1936, Malcolm was appointed to carry out a survey of land tenure in Sukumaland (Tanzania) and he produced a report in 1938 and a further study of the subject ten years later.

Malcolm became a District Officer in 1940, was seconded to the Colonial Office during 1943-1944, and in 1949 was appointed Principal Assistant Secretary, Tanganyika (Tanzania). He later served as Secretary for Agriculture and Natural Resources (1954) and as Ministerial Secretary (1957-1959).

In 1951, Malcolm acquired the 99-year lease of a property on the coast near Mboamaji, ten miles from Dar es Salaam. This property, called Dungu Farm, was nearly 2000 acres in extent, with a mile of beach forming the northern boundary and a permanent river running through the centre of the estate. When, in 1960, ill health forced him to return to England, Malcolm sold the farm as a going concern with 390 head of cattle, 160 hens, and plantations of cashew nuts, coconuts, coffee, elephant grass, and fruit trees.

Malcolm married Pamela M.C. Clarke and they had one son.