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
Sir Richard Willis, 1st Baronet Fox to have been born "bereft of his wits" and died unmarried and without children at the age of 59. With his death the Baronetcy created for Sir Richard became extinct. Richard Willis appears as a character in Act II of the play Cromwell by Victor Hugo, published in Paris in 1828. In his afterword to "An Instance of the Fingerpost", Iain Pears explains that much of the book's plot was inspired by the career of Willis, and his family's later, unsuccessful attempts to clear his name. Sir Richard Willis, 1st Baronet Sir Richard Willis, 1st Baronet (sometimes spelt 'Willys')