Claire Summerfield was the wife of Admiral Isaac Summerfield II and the mother of Bernice Summerfield. She looked a great deal like her daughter: slenderly built, with short dark hair and sharp, intelligent features.
Claire was observant and intelligent, easily spotting her daughter's attempts at malingering, but was prone to absent-mindedness, forgetting to eat. (PROSE: The Evacuation of Bernice Summerfield Considered as a Short Film by Terry Gilliam)
Unlike her daughter, a lifelong atheist, (PROSE: Dry Pilgrimage) Claire was Catholic. (PROSE: Love and War, AUDIO: Good Night, Sweet Ladies)
Within six months of the disappearance and presumed desertion of her husband, Claire died in the Dalek forces' 2548 attack on Beta Caprisis. She put her eight-year-old daughter in the shelter. Panicked by the attack and dazed by the first wave of plasma fire, she was running back for Benny's favourite doll when she was hit by a Dalek disintegration ray. (PROSE: Love and War, Set Piece) Another account claimed that the planet Claire died on was Vandor Prime. (PROSE: Beige Planet Mars)
A Dalek ship created a replicant of Claire, who Bernice met later in her life. The replicant of Claire helped Bernice to find Ace, shortly before dying along with the Dalek ship. (AUDIO: Good Night, Sweet Ladies)