Sir Walter Bullivant up. In the first chapter of the novel, the reader also learns of Bullivant's son Harry Bullivant, who lost his life while spying in the Middle East in the guise of a muleteer. 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,
Richard Hannay at Delagoa Bay in the Boer war. He goes to England in 1914, shortly before the events of "The Thirty-Nine Steps". The First World War breaks out eight weeks after the events of "The Thirty-Nine Steps", and Hannay immediately joins the New Army, and is promptly commissioned captain on the strength of his Matebele campaign experience. He is wounded in the leg and neck in the Battle of Loos in September 1915, by which time he had reached the rank of major. "Greenmantle," the sequel to "The Thirty-Nine Steps" begins in late 1915, with Hannay in Hampshire where he has