Verity Smith

From Tardis Wiki, the free Doctor Who reference

Verity was the wife of Sydney and the mother of John Smith in the fictional backstory John thought was his own.

Verity was a nurse. She and her husband raised John on Broadmarsh Street in Radford Parade in the district of Nottingham. (TV: Human Nature) After she and her husband died the family maid, Martha Jones, continued to serve John. (TV: The Family of Blood)

John Smith was in fact the Tenth Doctor, and these memories were a constructed part of his identity, after the Chameleon Arch made the Doctor human. (TVHuman Nature, The Family of Blood)

Behind the scenes

John's parent's names Verity and Sydney were a tribute and reference to Verity Lambert and Sydney Newman, both essential to the making of Doctor Who.