Molly O'Sullivan

Molly O'Sullivan was an Irish Voluntary Aid Detachment nursing assistant who was stationed in France during World War I. (AUDIO: The Great War, X and the Daleks)

Biography
Molly was born in 1891 as the daughter of Patrick and Cathy O'Sullivan (AUDIO: Tangled Web) and had seven siblings, all of whom she outlived (AUDIO: Fugitives, X and the Daleks). Two of her brothers and her three sisters died before their fifth birthdays. She had two other brothers, Patrick and Liam. Patrick joined the British Army in World War I and was killed on his first day in France while Liam remained in Ireland but was killed by an English sentry. (AUDIO: X and the Daleks)

On her second birthday, Molly became "lost in a storm", and fell into the clutches of Kotris. Kotris took Molly to his TARDIS and infused her with retro-genitor particles, then returned her home to her parents. (AUDIO: Tangled Web) The effect of the retro-genitor particles gave Molly unusually dark eyes. She was teased for her dark eyes when she was a child and when she first entered domestic service. However, this teasing ended when she began to punch the people who mocked her. (AUDIO: X and the Daleks)

Before the outbreak of World War I, she worked as a chambermaid for the Donaldson family in Eaton Place in London. She became friends with the Donaldsons' daughter Kitty, who viewed her as being the sister that she never had. When Kitty became a VAD in France, Molly did likewise as she knew that her mistress needed someone to protect her. After several months serving in France, Kitty contracted an infection from one of the soldiers whom she was treating. She was eventually killed by the renegade Time Lord Kotris and the Daleks. (AUDIO: The Great War)

She departed the TARDIS after materialising it in France during World War I. She realised that with Kotris having been erased from history, Kitty would still be alive and that she had to continue taking care of her as she promised. (AUDIO: X and the Daleks)

Later references
When the Eighth Doctor was about to regenerate, he remembered Molly among his past companions. (TV: The Night of the Doctor)

Behind the scenes

 * Molly is the first Irish companion that the Doctor has had in any medium.