Edward Ashford, 5th Earl Ashford

Edward Ashford was one of the three founders of Umbrella Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Biography
Sir Edward Ashford was a childhood friend of fellow aristocrat Ozwell E. Spencer, and the promising virologist James Marcus. The three were of the first Western re-discoverers of the Progenitor virus, the previous discoverer having been discredited over a century earlier.

Ashford was a consummate scientific mind, possessing none of the overzealous ambitions for power and wealth that his co-founders; Spencer and Marcus, were so driven to achieve. However, Ashford contracted the Progenitor virus and died in 1968, possibly sparing him the wrath of the treacherous Spencer, who had his remaining co-founder; Marcus, assassinated to bolster his position within the Umbrella Corporation.

The Progenitor virus would eventually lead to the horrors of the tyrant virus, and Ashford's own grandchildren, Alfred and Alexia, would visit their own terrors upon humanity.

Trivia


Yasuhiro Seto, the developer of Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles, has stated in his blog regarding the Ashford Family:

"The Ashford family bloodline has been cursed ever since Edward, the 5th generation family head, founded the Umbrella Corporation. This curse also affected his heir Alexander, and his children Alfred and Alexia."

This curse would eventually cause the gradual decline and eventual extinction of the once proud Ashford family.

Edward's only known physical appearance is of a portrait in the Palace on Rockfort Island that portrayed him as an elderly man.