Samson Ware Regimental Sergeant Major Samson Ware was a key member of the Fifth Operational Corps during the time that it was active . He was a close friend to Alistair Gordon Lethbridge - Stewart , who saw him as calm and resolute ; most others saw him as glib and bold , which was in part a facade he put on . As a black man in Britain at the time , he grew used to both casual and overt racism . While it angered him , he tried to avoid letting anything show . ( PROSE : " The Lost Skin " ) History . Early life . Samson was the grandson of Sidney Ware , who emigrated from Barbados to Liverpool in World War I . When his mother ( Lucia Brown ) died in childbirth in 1936 , Samson ' s father Wesley Ware went off the rails and so Samson ' s grandparents raised him . At the end of the Second World War , his father took custody of him again and Samson was moved to London . ( PROSE : Character bio in " The Showstoppers " ) He lived in Brixton and spent his youth around the boxing clubs his father trained at . ( PROSE : " The Showstoppers " ) For most of his life , he detested his father . ( PROSE : " The Lost Skin " ) He proved to be a keen boxer but not academically gifted and , ironically , had the same temper his father had had in his youth . To straighten him out , Wesley forced him to join the British Army . When he first met 2nd Lieutentant Alistair Gordon Lethbridge - Stewart , he disliked him : considering him an overprivileged prig . They soon became friends as Samson grew to respect Lethbridge - Stewart for his decency . In 1956 , Alistair punched a cab driver for racially abusing Samson and took all the blame even though Samson had lost his temper first . ( PROSE : Character bio in " The Showstoppers " ) Samson was sent to Cyprus while Alistair was serving punishment and the two fell out of contact , as Alistair was unable to find where Samson had been sent . Samson spent two years fighting the Cyprus insurgency and hated it , haunted at night by the constant sniper fire and bombings . In 1958 , he received an honourable discharge in 1958 . He tried to leave the bad memories behind but could still be haunted by them a decade later . ( PROSE : " The Showstoppers " ) The discharge had happened as his suitability for combat was deteriorating , following a close call with a bus bomb and his father ' s death happening in quick succession ; he ' d grown to think he was being punished somehow . ( PROSE : Character bio in " The Showstoppers " ) Despite hating his father , the loss left a hole in him he tried to fill by ' getting on ' with things . ( PROSE : " The Lost Skin " ) After some work as a boxer and a bouncer , he found he still craved the adrenaline rush of being a soldier . Through a girlfriend ( PROSE : Character bio in " The Showstoppers " ) he became a stuntman in order to get that rush without the genuine danger . As a black man , people tended to ignore him on set . In August 1969 , Samson was hired for the show BLIMEY . During the filming , he began to be suspicious of actor Aubrey Mondegreene and found himself being followed by a tramp ( former CIA agent Hannsen ) . While having a drink at " The Gunmaker ' s Arms " , Samson re - encountered Alistair and learned of the newly former Fifth Operational Corps . Working with Anne Travers and Hansenn , Samson investigated Mondegreene ' s operation and were crucial in unmasking him as a clone of the Nazi scientist Vilhelm Schädengeist , planning to experiment on humans in his vast bunker . After Samson helped the Corps stop Schädengeist from faking a nuclear war to terrorise people into entering his bunker , he was offered a position as a regimental sergeant major . ( PROSE : " The Showstoppers " ) While he wouldn ' t admit to it , Samson joined up as he felt his life was a string of failures and he wanted to prove himself by dedicating himself to a cause . ( PROSE : Character bio in " The Showstoppers " ) Fifth Operational Corps . He took up the role and moved to Scotland , where he rapidly picked up a local girlfriend . His skin colour stood out in the country . ( PROSE : " The Lost Skin " ) He was on hand to face the Ymir on Strommach ( PROSE : " The Grandfather Infestation " ) , and in October he was sent on a mission to John o Groats with Professor Travers to distract Harold Chorley from closing in on Lethbridge - Stewart . ( PROSE : " The Lost Skin " ) He accompanied Lethbridge - Stewart to Santorini ( PROSE : " Blood of Atlantis " ) and took it personally when Lethbridge - Stewart was later assualted while undercover in Wormwood Scrubs Prison . ( PROSE : " Mind of Stone " ) On 24 December 1969 , Samson was sent to Llanfairfach after Private Gwynfor Evans sighted a slug - like alien in his house . Working with Evans , Samson discovered that the creature was just one of many which were stealing mechanical pieces from christmas present s to build a dangerous combat machine . They also worked out that pine sap was poisonous to the creatures . Samson stuck a pine needle in one creature so that when it interacted with its fellow creatures it would poison all of them . With the creatures all dead , Samson celebrated Christmas with Evans ' s family . ( PROSE : " The Feast of Evans " ) He returned to Edinburgh on Boxing Day in time for the officers and family meal , where he was introduced to Bob Maddox , husband of Sergeant Jean Maddox . ( PROSE : " Home for Christmas " ) By 1990 , Samson had died . ( PROSE : " The Enfolded Time " ) Behind the scenes . More information about Samson Ware is revealed on his character profile on the Lethbridge - Stewart website . He was born in London on 8 April 1936 , with his parents being Wesley Ware and Lucia Brown . His surname , and career as a stuntman , was a deliberate tribute to Derek Ware , who died shortly before work began on " The Showstoppers " .