William Bishop

William Daniel Michael Bishop was a key member of the Home-Army Fifth Operational Corps and the husband of Anne Travers. (PROSE: The Enfolded Time)

Biography
Bishop was born on 14 August 1945, in Mitcham, London. His father, Anthony, was a bookkeeper, while his mother, Susan, was a teacher. He had two sisters, Samantha and Michelle, and a brother, Daniel. Samantha called him "Bill" and "Billy". (PROSE: Legacies) His grandfather was with the Eighth Army in North Africa during World War II. (PROSE: Beast of Fang Rock, Moon Blink)

By 1969, Bishop was a rifleman in the Green Jackets 5th Battalion stationed near Plymouth. (PROSE: The Forgotten Son)

Meeting Lethbridge-Stewart
In March 1969, he was called in to assist the pile up on the A38 Liskeard Bypass. He was assigned to Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart and helped in combating the Robot Yeti in Bledoe. He took a shine to Anne Travers when he met her. He used to love reading science fiction novels when he was a kid. Lethbridge-Stewart considered Bishop to be good officer material and decided Bishop would make a good addition to the special team he planned on building. (PROSE: The Forgotten Son)

He remained in contact with Anne, who took to calling him "Bill" because she thought it annoyed him. But secretly he liked it. In April 1969 he was transferred from the Royal Green Jackets to the Scots Guards by General Hamilton, and promoted to lance corporal, serving as adjutant to Lethbridge-Stewart at Chelsea Barracks. He was read into the secret mission to find proof of alien incursions in the United Kingdom. He assisted Lethbridge-Stewart and Anne on Fang Rock, developing a strong friendship with Owain Vine, Lethbridge-Stewart's nephew. With Owain, he was astral projected through time and witnessed the events of 1902, including the arrival of the Rutan and the TARDIS. While on Fang Rock, a mutual affection developed between Bishop and Anne. He was electrocuted during a fight with a Rutan, but survived with only burns. He was put on the fast track course at Mons Officer Cadet Training School, to undergo officer training while serving alongside Lethbridge-Stewart. (PROSE: Beast of Fang Rock)

Working in the Fifth Operational Corps
After Fang Rock, he was assigned to uncover the secrets of the Home-Army Operational Corps by Lethbridge-Stewart, on the advice of Air Marshal Gilmore. He redacted the files, while Lethbridge-Stewart dealt with the incident at Dominex, and later presented them to Lethbridge-Stewart, helping the colonel build-up a profile for the Home-Army Fifth Operational Corps' mission. (PROSE: The Dogs of War, Mutually Assured Domination)

His relationship with Anne continued to blossom over the following months, and he helped Anne when her friend, Patricia Richards, was on the run from both Americans and Russian, after she rescued an alien baby. (PROSE: Moon Blink) He hit off with Samson Ware from the moment they met, to the point where both he and Anne invited Samson out for drinks to celebrate Bishop's twenty-fourth birthday. (PROSE: The Showstoppers) His Mons training concluded early September and he was given the official officer's rank of second lieutenant in time for the Corps' official relocation to Dolerite Base beneath Edinburgh Castle. (PROSE: The Grandfather Infestation)

In October of that year, he found himself in a slight conflict with Anne when he accidentally let slip that he knew something about her father's abduction earlier in the year. Despite orders from Lethbridge-Stewart, he finally revealed what he knew, and supported Anne's investigation. He and Samson arranged a party for Anne, to celebrate her thirty-first birthday. (PROSE: The Lost Skin) When he bumped into Owain Vine on Santorini the following month he called the younger man 'Little G', demonstrating the friendship between them (Bishop was often called 'ginge' growing up, and ended up taking on the nickname 'G' in defiance of the slur). (PROSE: Blood of Atlantis) He commanded a mission to Egypt at the end of November, leading Anne and Lance Corporal Sally Wright. (PROSE: Mind of Stone) He spent Christmas with Anne and her family, and during one private moment over a little game of 'what if' he gave Anne a plastic ring from a Christmas cracker. Although they joked, it became very clear that the gesture meant a great deal to both of them. He organised a Boxing Day meal for the Dolerite Base command staff and their families. His sister and nephew attended. (PROSE: Home for Christmas)

He wanted to ask Anne out on a proper date, but it never seemed to be the right time. Eventually Anne herself asked him out on a date. He supported Anne after she lost her father, assisting her in processing the loss and tracking down family members to inform of Edward Travers' death. (PROSE: Night of the Intelligence, The Daughters of Earth, The Dreamer's Lament)

He kept in touch with Anne's brother, Alun, and Anne found it mildly annoying how well they both got on. Especially as Alun seemed to realise that the two were destined to be together before either of them had spoken openly about it. (PROSE: The Dreamer's Lament)

Bishop became worried about Anne during the latter half of 1970, feeling she was not coming to terms with her father's death. He helped her work it out, and supported her decision to remove herself from active duty with the Fifth Operational Corps. They remained together regardless, and married at some point in 1971, by which time he was a captain. (PROSE: A Very Private Haunting, The New Unusual, The Man from Yesterday, Scary Monsters, Fear of the Web)

By 1974, he had the rank of major (the promotion being one of the Brigadier's last duties as commander of HAVOC). As a favour to the Brigadier, he helped transfer an elderly "James Gore" to Eastchester under cover of advising HAVOC. (PROSE: Ashes of the Inferno)

Later life
Bishop was promoted to lieutenant colonel in the early 1980s. Bishop and Anne had a son together, Samuel, born in 1988. (PROSE: The Slow Invasion) At the end of 1989 Bishop was promoted to colonel, and became the second-in-command of the Fifth Operational Corps. He visited Lethbridge-Stewart's house for a New Year's Eve party and ended up staying until 1 January 1990. He chatted with Alistair before leaving. (PROSE: The Enfolded Time) They continued to keep sporadic contact over the next ten years. (PROSE: The Two Brigadiers) In 1999, Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart had a meeting with Bambera to discuss being brought back into the fold in some way. Bambera refused his request. Bill and Anne met up with him at a cafe in Euston Square to cheer him up. There they were introduced to Calum Bence, who's body was in fact inhabited by Bill from 2011. (PROSE: The Danger Men)

In 2000, by which time Bishop was brigadier and commander of the Corps, Bill enlisted the help of Lethbridge-Stewart to look for the missing Anne. (PROSE: The Two Brigadiers)

By November 2011, Bishop had retired from active duty and served on the advisory board of the United Nations Security Council. He and Anne visited Sir Alistair in a nursing home, and were astral projected back in time to 1969 by the Laughing Gnome. Bishop found himself inhabiting the body of Jonathan James. He travelled to various time periods, including the 1930s, and 1999 where he ended up in the body of secret agent Calum Bence. By that point he began to wonder if he would ever return to his own body. (PROSE: Scary Monsters, Fear of the Web, The Danger Men) He finally arrived in 1974 and reunited with both Anne and Sir Alistair, and solved a mystery surrounding the Dominator, Vaar. Bill and Anne were then returned to 2011, while Alistair continued onto one more adventure. (PROSE: Rise of the Dominator)

After Sir Alistair returned, they made a promise to him to spend some time with Smithy Gloyne, and this they did following Sir Alistair's funeral in January 2012. (PROSE: Lucy Wilson and the Bledoe Cadets)

Sir Alistair left Bill the Gnome, and he used it to travel back in time once more, to discover the truth behind Alistair's decision to pursue a military career. He spent several months in the mind of a younger Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart, living with him through the initial months of his National Service in the 1950s. (PROSE: On His Majesty's National Service)

In mid-2017, Bill was diagnosed with a malignant, inoperable form of cancer. He was given two years to live on the outside. He and Anne took to travelling, to see their final years out by living life. In February 2018, they were called out of retirement to help a crisis about time being changed in the year 1896. After witnessing his wife be erased before him, Bill used a time ring and travelled back in time to stop the change. He was taken off track and ended up in an alternative 1969, where he met a version of Alistair known as Archie. He also met a version of his wife from that timeline's 1978. After completing his "mission", he returned to his own time, hopefully to find things restored, including his wife. (PROSE: An Ordinary Man)

Bill died at some point in 2019 from a malignant form of cancer, leaving behind him his wife, son, and grandchildren, Max, Emily, Enoch and Evan. (PROSE: The Stories We Tell)

Other realities
In an alternative timeline, Bishop was one of the survivors in a Southern England mostly subsumed by the Great Intelligence. He rescued Owain Vine from the Yeti in Bledoe, but shortly after his mind became subsumed by the Intelligence. (PROSE: Legacies)