Richard Hannay of the Second World War, Buchan's last novel, "Sick Heart River" (published just after the author died in 1940) offers a hint about Hannay's future: dying in Canada, Hannay's friend Sir Edward Leithen hears of the outbreak of war in Europe and guesses that many of his old friends, including Hannay, will have taken up arms again. Richard Hannay Major-General Sir Richard Hannay, KCB, OBE, DSO, Legion of Honour, is a fictional character created by Scottish novelist John Buchan and further made popular by the 1935 Alfred Hitchcock film "The 39 Steps" (and other later film adaptations), very loosely based
James Ballantyne Hannay James Ballantyne Hannay James Ballantyne Hannay FRSE(1855–1931) was a Scottish chemist who believed he had synthesized diamond in 1880. However, modern testing showed that the surviving samples from his experiments were natural diamond, not synthetic. While his techniques were conducive to diamond formation, modern diamond production – not achieved until the 1950s – requires capabilities not available in Hannay's time. Hannay was also known for making precision instruments. James Ballantyne Hannay was born at 22 Monteith Row in Glasgow on New Year's Day, 1855. His father was Alexander Hannay, tool-maker, who owned property in Helensburgh and who was the proprietor