Gwyneth (The Unquiet Dead)

Gwyneth was a servant girl at Gabriel Sneed's home in Cardiff who had clairvoyant abilities.

Biography
Her parents died of influenza when she was twelve and she was brought up by Mr. Sneed. She fancied the butcher's boy.

When Gwyneth gave the Ninth Doctor a cup of tea, she said, "Two sugar, sir. Just as you like it", although she had never met him before. These psychic powers enabled her to be contacted by the gaseous Gelth who had arrived in the city via a space-time rift located there.

Gwyneth and the Doctor agreed to the Gelth's pleas to let them come through to Earth and possess dead bodies in order to survive. The Gelth lied to them about the extent of their numbers and their hostile intentions. When she stood underneath an archway in order to contact the Gelth, they passed through, and trapped the Doctor and Rose. Learning the Gelth's true intentions, Gwyneth was able to hold them inside the house, though not to send them back. To destroy them, she struck a match once the Doctor and Rose had escaped, igniting the gas in the chamber and destroying herself in the process. The Doctor would have lit the match himself, but realized that Gwyneth had been dead since standing in the archway, despite remaining able to think and speak. A possible explanation for this is that one of the Gelth might have chosen to turn against its kind and was possessing Gwyneth which would explain how she appeared to still be alive. However Charles Dickens said that some things could not be explained so it is unknown if this theory is true. (DW: The Unquiet Dead)

Gwyneth's genetic traits would be passed, through the space-time rift via spatial genetic multiplicity, to her distant relative Gwen Cooper, an agent of the branch of the Torchwood Institute based in Cardiff in the 21st century. Gwen and Gwyneth looked practically identical, although Gwen did not inherit her psychic abilities. (DW: Journey's End)

Behind the scenes

 * Eve Myles later played Gwen Cooper in Torchwood. A link between the two characters was confirmed in Journey's End.