Sir Walter Bullivant Sir Walter Bullivant Sir Walter Bullivant is a fictional character created by the Scottish thriller writer John Buchan for his series of novels featuring the spy Richard Hannay. He plays small but significant roles in both "The Thirty-Nine Steps" and "Greenmantle". Sir Walter is a senior mandarin at the Foreign Office in the years leading up to World War I. He is the archetypal spymaster — gruff, acutely conscious of his duty, yet thoughtful and kindly towards those he sends into peril. In "Greenmantle", he recruits Hannay to perform a dangerous mission in the East as the Great Game heats
Hannay baronets chemist’. By 1790 he was still in business, in partnership with William Duncan at Philpot Lane, but he did not long survive his second return for Camelford on the interest of Sir Jonathan Phillipps. During the Regency crisis he had gone over to opposition with his friend Sir John Macpherson and colleague James Macpherson and he joined the members of opposition who met at Burlington House on 11 May 1790. As he died on 11 Dec. 1790 and Parliament had opened on 23 Nov., it is unlikely that he took any part in the proceedings. Hannay evidently owed £200,000 at