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Torchwood 1 wass the base of operations of the Torchwood Institute in London, England. It was destroyed after the Battle of Canary Wharf.
History
Sometime in 2007, the Institute recovered a large golden sphere of obviously alien design that registered as having no mass, no energy, no physical data whatsoever. The retrieval of this item, later to be revealed as a Void Ship, was in conjunction with Torchwood experiments involving a 'hole' in spacetime. After experimenting with the 'hole', it was discovered that tapping into the resonance around it could provide massive amounts of what they believed was free energy. A side-effect of these experiments was the appearance of millions of 'ghosts' all over the world; humanoid figures that seemed to glow with an unearthly light.
It was at this point that the Doctor became involved, and explained to the then-administrator Yvonne Hartman that their experiments were in fact weakening the barrier between dimensions, which would eventually lead to dramatic problems in their own world, perhaps even resulting in the collapse of their dimension altogether. His warnings were not heeded, and the experiments continued. As a result, a massive invasion force from another dimension came through the 'hole', allowing the Earth to be conquered by the Cybermen for approximately an hour. (DW: Army of Ghosts)
At the same time, the Void ship opened, revealing a hidden cadre of Daleks. Four Daleks, members of the secret Cult of Skaro, had come to Earth to help restore the Dalek race using a stolen piece of Time Lord technology called the Genesis Ark. They promptly killed a Torchwood technician while stealing his knowledge of current events, and seeing the Cybermen as a potential threat to their own plans, they launched an attack against them, despite an offer from the Cyber-Leader to form an alliance.
The 'hole' in spacetime created by the Void ship also allowed a resistance army from another dimension to cross over, initially with the intention of stopping the Cybermen. However, with the appearance of the Daleks a rather sudden and uneasy truce began, with Torchwood militia men, the other-dimensional resistance fighters, and the Cybermen all fighting together against the Daleks. This turned the Torchwood Tower into a battleground, and the fighting did not stop until the Doctor found a way to intervene, reversing Torchwood's power machinery and sending the Daleks and Cybermen into the Void. (DW: Doomsday)
While a majority of the Torchwood administration were either killed or 'upgraded' by the Cybermen, the institute survived at its other installations, Torchwood 2, Torchwood 3 and Torchwood 4. (TW: Cyberwoman)
Administrators and Staff
Yvonne Hartman
Yvonne Hartman was the administrator of Torchwood in 2007 during the Cybermen incursion and the Dalek conflict. She oversaw the projects that included the Void Ship, as well as the power experiment that ultimately resulted in the Cybermen's invasion. She held a great admiration for The Doctor, however she was confident in the righteousness of Torchwood's actions to the point of fault, ignoring his recomendations and warnings. Only when the end was near did she attempt to stop the experiments, only to have her orders overridden by staff who had been secretly 'upgraded' by the Cybermen.
She was fiercely patriotic, and believed that Torchwood's work was vital to the survival of the 'British Empire', and was assured that their work would in fact lead to the restoration of Britain to the status of empire. Ultimately, she was seized by the Cybermen and led off to be 'upgraded', and while she was tear-stricken, she walked into the chamber without coercion, claiming that she "did (her) duty for Queen and Country".
She performed one last known service; even after being 'upgraded' by the Cybermen, her apparent pride and sense of duty was so strong that it overrode the behaviour protocols and allowed her to fend off the Cybermen approaching the top offices, giving The Doctor and Rose time to seal the breach between worlds. She is assumed dead.