Richard Hannay 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 on Buchan's 1915 novel of the same name. In his autobiography, "Memory Hold-the-Door", Buchan suggests that the character is based, in part, on Edmund Ironside, from Edinburgh, a spy during the Second Boer War. Hannay appears in several novels as a major character, including: He also appears as a minor character in: "The Thirty-One Kings" (2017), by
James Hannay write for papers and magazines, chiefly for the "Pall Mall Gazette" and the "Cornhill," he published no more books. Hannay's death occurred very suddenly on 9 January 1873 at Putchet, a suburb of Barcelona. Hannay was twice married, first, in 1853, to Margaret Thompson, who died in 1865; and then, in 1868, to Jean Hannay, a lady of the same name, but of no traceable relationship, who died in Spain in 1870. He had by the first marriage six, and by the second one child, who survived him. James Hannay James Hannay FRSE (17 February 1827 – 9 January 1873),