Edward Travers Professor Edward Travers was a British anthropologist and explorer . His life was largely defined by his numerous encounters with the Great Intelligence , each of which brought great change . After his first encounter with the Intelligence , Travers spent several years displaced from his native time . During this time , he faced the Intelligence again and met H . G . Wells . In the end , both Travers and his daughter Anne were killed fighting the Intelligence . History . Edward was born to Lyndon Travers . ( PROSE : " One Cold Step " ) Trip to Tibet . In either the 1920s ( COMIC : " Yonder . . . The Yeti " ) or 1935 , Travers decided to set out on an expedition to prove the existence of Yeti in order to prove Professor Walters , his old rival at the Royal Geographical Society , wrong . After gaining the financial support of a " Fleet Street editor " and getting John Angus Mackay to agree to accompany him to Tibet , Travers began a long journey from London to the Himalayas . ( PROSE : " Doctor Who and the Abominable Snowmen " ) One night after Travers and Mackay arrived in the Himalayas , their camp was attacked by Robot Yeti and Mackay was killed . Travers found refuge at the Det - Sen Monastery . When the Second Doctor , Jamie McCrimmon , and Victoria Waterfield arrived at the monastery shortly afterwards , Travers initially suspected that they were the culprits for the attack on his camp , but he eventually came to trust them and aided in defeating the Great Intelligence . ( TV : " The Abominable Snowmen " ) Immediately after the Doctor left , Travers followed what he believed to be a real Yeti into a cave and discovered an invasion force of robot yeti led by Jemba - Wa . He overheard the Intelligence giving them instructions to invade London and New York City and was pulled forward in time along with the yeti to 1965 , but was knocked unconscious during the trip . ( PROSE : " The Creatures in the Cave " , " Times Squared " ) Displaced in time . After making sure that the Det - Sen Monastery was safe , Travers began a months - long journey across Asia and Europe to get to London before the Yeti , having many " strange adventures " and " chance encounters " along the way . His voyage has seemingly reached an end in London , but after spying on his future self and his future daughter in St James ' s Park and his future son teaching at the University of Oxford Travers realised that he couldn ' t remain in London without having to worry about disrupt the future . He went to New York City and established himself under the alias " Ernest Ebon " . For four years , Travers ran Ebon Books while trying to prepare New York for the Intelligence . When signs of the Intelligence began appearing in the city , Travers directed detective Paul Dawson and Lieutenant Adrienne Kramer to them . In October 1969 , the Intelligence finally launched its attack and Travers worked with Brigadier Lethbridge - Stewart to defeat it once more . After this , Jemba - Wa attempted to transport Travers through time and space back to 1935 Tibet . Unfortunately for Travers , that wasn ' t where he arrived . ( PROSE : " Times Squared " ) Ordinary life & World War II . Travers brought back one of the robot Yeti used by the Intelligence , but money problems eventually forced him to sell it to Julius Silverstein for his private museum — though Travers kept the Yeti ' s control sphere . ( TV : " The Web of Fear " ) Travers later married Margaret Goff . He became quite enamoured with eccentric Goffs , a family with whom the Travers shared a lot of bad blood . It was hoped their marriage would heal some wound , but instead he distanced himself from his own family . Margaret and he had a son , Alun , in 1936 , and in 1938 a daughter , Anne . His wife passed away when Anne was very young . As a result , during the 1940s , Travers often left his children with his brother - in - law , Sebastian Goff , and his wife , while he did secret work for the British military arm , the Fourth Operational Corps . ( PROSE : " One Cold Step " ) He was brought into the Corps in 1941 by Tobias Kinsella . ( PROSE : " Night of the Intelligence " ) In the 1960s , Travers met postgraduate student James Rafferty , and took him into his confidence regarding a Yeti control sphere . ( PROSE : " The Dimension Riders " ) Working with Lethbridge - Stewart . Travers eventually succeeded in reactivating one of the Yeti ' s control spheres , which led to the Intelligence attacking London . He and Anne assisted the Doctor and the army task force led by Colonel Lethbridge - Stewart in defeating the Intelligence once more . ( TV : " The Web of Fear " ) In April 1969 , Travers went on an expedition to the Arctic Circle with his daughter . ( PROSE : " One Cold Step " , " The Schizoid Earth " ) In May 1969 , Travers was kidnapped by Leslie Johnston , who attempted to use him to control one of the Robot Yeti . He was freed by Lethbridge Stewart and Ian Gilmore . ( PROSE : " The Dogs of War " ) In July 1969 , Travers met with Anne to watch Apollo 11 land on the the Moon , but he fell asleep just prior to the landing . ( PROSE : " Moon Blink " ) Following his kidnapping by Johnston , Travers began to suffer memory issues , mistaking Ann for his deceased wife . In October 1969 , Anne voiced her fear to Sally Wright that her father was suffering from dementia . ( PROSE : " Times Squared , The Lost Skin " ) Later life . Four years later , the Doctor tried to contact Travers again , but learned from Isobel Watkins that he and Anne had gone to spend a year in the United States . ( TV : " The Invasion " ) Travers spent years trying to learn all he could about the Intelligence , even researching at the Library of St John the Beheaded . His reputation was ruined by Ashley Chapel . ( PROSE : " Millennial Rites " ) Travers died on 25 December 1980 after spending his last few years living in isolation in Tibet . His reanimated corpse was used as a host for the Great Intelligence in 1995 , posing as the chancellor of New World University , as part of its plan to conquer Earth by infecting the global network of computers . ( HOMEVID : " Downtime " ) Other realities . In the Inferno Earth , Edward Travers died in an avalanche while searching for Yetis in 1935 . ( PROSE : " The Schizoid Earth " ) In Alastair Lethbridge - Stewart ' s home reality , Edward Travers used Nikola Tesla ' s time machine in 1945 to escape with Alastair to Inferno Earth ; however , Travers died upon arriving . ( PROSE : " The Schizoid Earth " )