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,
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')