Richard Hannay
Or, to use his full title, Major-General Sir Richard Hannay KCB OBE DSO. Hero of
The Thirty-Nine Steps ; also the protagonist of
Greenmantle,
Mr. Standfast,
The Three Hostages and
The Island of Sheep, as well as being a minor character in
The Runagates Club and
The Courts of the Morning and mentioned by name in
Sick Heart River. A mining engineer who was born in Scotland but raised in Southern Africa, Hannay gained military experience in the Matabele War and the Boer War. He returned to Britain in 1914, shortly before the events of
The Thirty-Nine Steps, and joined the British Army when
World War I broke out. His service on the Western Front, which leads to rapid promotion, is punctuated by the events of
Greenmantle and
Mr Standfast. After the war, Hannay marries Mary Lamington and they have a son, Peter John. He settles into rural life in the Cotswolds but is drawn back into the world of adventure in
The Three Hostages. His last adventure,
The Island of Sheep, occurs over a decade later when Hannay, now in his fifties, is called by an old oath to protect the son of an old acquaintance. This book also focuses on Peter John who is by now a bright but solemn teenager. Though the Hannay books stop short of
World War II due to Buchan's death in 1940, it's hinted in
Sick Heart River that he and others will take up arms again in the (then) forthcoming conflict. A new continuation series by Robert J. Harris
note not that Robert Harris (starting with
The Thirty-One Kings, published in 2017) deals with Hannay's further adventures. Portrayed in the various film and TV adaptations of
The Thirty-Nine Steps by
Robert Donat, Kenneth More,
Robert Powell and Rupert Penry-Jones
note Powell also played him in the 1988-89 TV series Hannay which was not actually based on any of Buchan's works, and by Barry Foster in a 1970s TV movie adaptation of
The Three Hostages. Buchan himself stated that he was based on
Edmund Ironside
.
Sir Edward Leithen
The character
most similar to Buchan himself. Leithen is a Scottish barrister and a Conservative MP who becomes a staff officer in
World War I and at one point serves as Attorney General. Appears in
The Power-House,
John Macnab,
The Dancing Floor,
The Runagates Club,
The Gap in the Curtain and
Sick Heart River. In the latter,
Leithen is diagnosed with terminal tuberculosis. He decides to spend his last days tracking down a missing financier who has had a nervous breakdown and fled to a remote part of Canada. He finds the man but decides to stay with a group of Indians and help them fight a disease epidemic. He succeeds, and dies a happy man. Portrayed by James Maxwell in a 1970s TV adaptation of
John Macnab.
Sandy Arbuthnot
Full name: Ludovic Gustavus Arbuthnot, later the 16th Baron Clanroyden. Appears in
Greenmantle,
The Three Hostages,
The Runagates Club,
The Courts of the Morning and
The Island of Sheep. A
Master of Disguise to the point where he is always able to fool Hannay, his close friend. Originally based on the soldier-adventurer
Aubrey Herbert but later comes to resemble
T. E. Lawrence.
Dickson McCunn
A retired Glasgow grocer with a taste for adventure. Appears in
Huntingtower,
Castle Gay and
The House of the Four Winds in which he is assisted by the Gorbals Die-Hards, a group of Glasgow street urchins who he helps financially. Portrayed by Harry Lauder in the 1928 silent movie adaptation of
Huntingtower, and by James Hayter and Paul Curran in (respectively) the 1950s and 1970s TV adaptations.
Peter Pienaar
A South African hunter and "ne'er-do-well" who is an old friend of Hannay's from his time in Africa prior to
World War I. Although he does not appear in
The Thirty-Nine Steps, he is referenced by Hannay who makes good use of his advice on disguises. Appears in
Greenmantle, posing as a a slightly deranged but resolutely anti-British Boer while actually assisting Hannay. By the time of
Mr Standfast, he has joined the Royal Flying Corps and become an ace fighter pilot.
At the end of that book, he dies in an aerial collision during a dogfight with his German rival Lensch, killing him in the process and thus preventing him from carrying vital information about the very weak front-line position of the British forces back to the German lines. For this, he is posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross. Subsequently appears in a flashback sequence in
The Island of Sheep.
Archie Roylance
Sir Archibald Roylance is a recurring character who appears in
Mr Standfast,
Huntingtower,
The Three Hostages,
John Macnab,
The Courts of the Morning and
The House of the Four Winds, in addition to being referenced in
The Island of Sheep and
Sick Heart River. Served under Hannay on the Western Front in
World War I before becoming an RFC pilot. Stands for election in
John Macnab.
The Gorbals Die-Hards
A group of Glasgow street urchins who
model themselves on the Boy Scouts. Their members include Dougal Crombie and John 'Wee Jaikie' Galt. They assist their benefactor, Dickson McCunn, in
Huntingtower and his later adventures. By the time of
Castle Gay, they are young adults - Dougal is a journalist and Jaikie is a Cambridge undergraduate who plays rugby for Scotland.
