In
Greenmantle, Pienaar aids Hannay as an agent who deceives the German authorities in 1915 about the intentions and inclinations of
Afrikaners towards the
British Empire, and about how important the Middle East is to British interests. Pienaar plays, while unauthorised and gallivanting in Imperial Germany, a slightly deranged but anti-British
Boer, who only wants to do harm to the British Empire out of revenge for wrongs done to his people during the Anglo-Boer war (the Second South African War). He is re-united with Hannay by chance at a harbour on the
Danube, on the way to
Constantinople, the capital of the Ottoman empire. Near the end of the novel
Mr Standfast, Pienaar - who joined the
Royal Flying Corps in 1916 and become something of an "ace" and a hero to the younger pilots although modest and self-effacing as a man, is killed in an aerial collision during an heroic battle with the German air ace "Lensch" (also portrayed by Buchan as a chivalrous and honourable enemy, for Pienaar met him while in brief captivity previous to this story, and Lensch saw to his well-being). Lensch, leading a flight of fighter/observers, is carrying back to the German lines the secret of the terrible vulnerability of the Allied lines at that point in early 1918. The event is witnessed by General Richard Hannay on the ground, in his trench lines, a short distance away. Pienaar is buried in the last scene of
Mr Standfast, in which Richard Hannay, in the presence of Mary Lamington and
John S. Blenkiron, reads the valediction for "Mr Valiant-for-Truth" (from "Pilgrim's Progress") instead of that for Mr Standfast: as Hannay believes that Pienaar earned that greater salute for his bravery than what he would have otherwise warranted. Pienaar is awarded the VC posthumously, for his action. The reference to "Mr Standfast", a character from
John Bunyan's ''
Pilgrim's Progress'', is because Pienaar is stated as often comparing himself to that fictional character. The plot of
The Island of Sheep arises from an incident in South Africa involving Hannay and Pienaar. Pienaar inspires Hannay's character based disguises in
The 39 Steps. ==Notes==