Tommy Brockless

Thomas Reginald "Tommy" Brockless was born on 7th February 1894 in Blackley, Manchester, son of Constance May Bassett and Thomas Campbell Brockless. He fought for Britain in World War I, in the 10th West Yorkshire regiment. In 1918 he suffered shell shock and was admitted to St Teilo's Military Hospital in Cardiff.

While he was there, mysterious time-shifts started to occur--fractures in the rift, meaning that two slices of time were superimposed and becoming confused. Torchwood Three investigated; though they could not determine at what point in the future the other slice in time existed, they recognised Tommy in one of the fractures and decided to put him in stasis and wait until the hospital entered the other side of the fracture.

Torchwood cryogenically froze Brockless; once per year (usually on 21st June), they brought him out of stasis for tests. The process gave him a unique perspective on the following century. As they had frozen his most recent memories, the shell shock was not an issue during these awakenings. In 2009, anomalous activity finally returned to the now-abandoned hospital, and the crew of Torchwood Three sent Tommy back through the rift to 1918, so his life would be like a thread, stitching time back together again.

Sadly, when he returned, his shell shock also came back, and three weeks later he was shot by a British Army firing squad for cowardice. (TW: To the Last Man)