The Colonel was the chosen alias of a renegade Time Lord in the Celestial Intervention Agency's employ.
The Colonel's son died in the Prydonian Academy Revolution, (PROSE: CIA File Extracts [+]Loading...["CIA File Extracts (novel)"]) which was also the occasion of the Doctor and the Master's flight from Gallifrey. (PROSE: Birth of a Renegade [+]Loading...["Birth of a Renegade (short story)"]) His daughter Leoradrusendalular took him to an early retirement on Earth for safety. There, he took on the alias of "the Colonel". Blaming the Master for starting the Revolution, the Colonel swore a vendetta against his fellow Time Lord.
He came under scrutiny by the High Council, but, as he had not been guilty of any breach of the non-intervention policy, the Council left him unmolested. The Celestial Intervention Agency contacted him shortly thereafter to make him one of their agents on Earth. To better keep abreast of events, he joined the branch of UNIT on the West Coast of North America as a scientific advisor.
A few decades into his life on Earth, he was invited back to Gallifrey as a lecturer for the Prydonian Academy. His criminological lectures on the activities of other renegade Time Lords, such as the Master, were incorporated in the CIA's databanks about the individuals in question. (PROSE: CIA File Extracts [+]Loading...["CIA File Extracts (novel)"])
The Monk knew the Colonel before going renegade, and once considered gifting him a bow-tie made out of a silverleaf palm leaf when the Corsair refused the gift. (PROSE: The Bloodletters [+]Loading...["The Bloodletters (novel)"])
A group of adventurers may have been led by a Time Lord going by "The Colonel". (PROSE: I Walk in Eternity [+]Loading...["I Walk in Eternity (feature)"])