The Major was a resident at Mrs Hutchings's guest house. By the time the First Doctor had arrived at the guest house, the Major had been coming every summer for twelve years.
He and the Doctor struck up a friendship. They watched a movie together and drank together in the evenings.
When Jeff Atkins and his Pakistani wife, Ujwala, arrived at the guest house with their son Craig, the Major was uncomfortable but followed the Doctor's lead in welcoming them.
Like Mrs Hutchings and her guests, the Major was unaware that it was actually 1999, and that an alien posing as a guest, Mr Prentice, had placed the guest house in a kind of stasis so it would always be 1933 in Keelmouth. The Doctor and Prentice set things to right, and the Major and the other residents had to adapt to living in 1999. (PROSE: Bide-a-Wee)