Oswell E. Spencer, Earl Spencer

"I was to become a god! Creating a new world, with an advanced race of human beings...."

- Spencer to Albert Wesker, shortly before his death.

Oswell E. Spencer, also referred to as ' Lord Spencer ', was the president of Umbrella, a major bio-weapons manufacturer hiding behind a pharmaceutical façade. A man of great wealth and power, he was an aristocrat with a keen hobby in art collecting. He had a vision to remake the world and lead it into a new era, as the world's current state was less than ideal to Spencer. He intended to use the research of Bio Organic Weapons to carry out his vision and mould a utopia for mankind with himself as its ruler.

History


While Spencer is most notable for his role as the president of the Umbrella Corporation, he was also one of the three scientists that discovered the Progenitor virus. Accompanied by prominent researcher James Marcus and his student, Brandon Bailey, the trio were able to make the ground breaking find on December 4th, 1968. After much experimentation with the virus, Spencer was given a vision for the future of the world, which over the years manifested into "Project Wesker", a top secret Umbrella project that would become the reason for every action Spencer took. While driven by their insights to create a powerful viral biological weapon, Spencer and his colleagues established the Umbrella Corporation alongside his friend Edward Ashford. The company appeared to create pharmaceutical products, which was truly meant to disguise their sinister motives. Ashford later died after being exposed to the Progenitor virus, as part of Spencer's conspiracy to monopolize Umbrella for himself. Around the same time, Spencer hired the well-known architect George Trevor to design a special mansion in the Arklay Mountains.

The estate would serve as a camouflage for a secret research laboratory complex in its basement. After realizing that George may disclose of the secrets of the mansion in the future, Spencer had his wife Jessica and their daughter Lisa kidnapped and used as Progenitor virus test-subjects. George was imprisoned within the walls of the mansion he built. Able to remember most of the traps and passages he created, he managed to escape. However, he could not leave the grounds due to the guards and so hid in the caves below the estate. All known information about him stopped after he ceased writing in his diary in December, some time after falling down a hole, where a grave had been prepared for him by Spencer. Also occurring in that year, Spencer established the Umbrella Research Center for further research of the Progenitor virus, and appointed co-founder James Marcus as the first general manager.

After Marcus successfully created the t-Virus by introducing the Progenitor virus to a Leech, Spencer began to grow paranoid of Marcus' new found reputation. Ultimately, Spencer ordered Marcus' former apprentices, Albert Wesker and William Birkin, to assassinate him. In the aftermath, Spencer appointed Birkin to take over the t-Virus project. Spencer was also left as the sole remaining founding member of the Umbrella Corporation, and easily able to monopolize the company for himself. Around the late 1990s, he and several other businessmen with ties to Umbrella also purchased a defunct US Military Base on Sonido de Tortuga Island, which he later converted into a B.O.W. research lab, the same lab that Alex Wesker would later use for experiments on immortality.

Spencer's fate
"When one buries a treasure, one should not leave behind a map..."

When the Zombie outbreak affected Raccoon City, Spencer ordered that all of Umbrella's data be backed up to the U.M.F.-013 computer core, an act which was carried out and overseen by his loyal employee, Sergei Vladimir. Sergei and an unidentified Umbrella executive carried the computer core out of the city via helicopter. Raccoon City was leveled by a U.S. Government missile within moments of Sergei's escape. Spencer later received word that the city had been completely wiped out and made an entry about it in his journal. He also placed Sergei in charge of Umbrella's remaining structure, and went into hiding. Following the aftermath of the incidents in the Arklay Mountains and Raccoon City, Spencer brought forth top lawyers and false witnesses to the Supreme Court to shift blame for the events of Raccoon City to the Government, which kept Umbrella afloat for another five years.

In actuality, U.S. governors were involved with Umbrella's dealings. Ultimately, Albert Wesker sealed Umbrella's fate by submitting all of Umbrella's secret information (B.O.W.s, Viral Samples, Tactical Training, etc.) to the Government. The information had been downloaded onto a special disk from the U.M.F.-013, one of Umbrella's biggest archives. Wesker even went so far as to personally testify against Spencer, detailing what role he had in the events of Raccoon City; he was referred to as a personal friend of the CEO (chief executive officer), but ultimately betrayed his former employer. Immediately afterwards, Umbrella's business license was revoked and a global manhunt was begun with the goal of finding Spencer, who mysteriously vanished following Umbrella's destruction. Wesker took all of Umbrella's infrastructure he had recovered and planned to remake the company as his own empire, with which to lead the world into a new era. He would meet Spencer again and reveal his plans before the end of it all.

Immortality Research
"Alex has disappeared! I would be less concerned if that were the only regrettable report from the island.... And most importantly, all the research materials including the final virus that was to make me a god cannot be located! I have been betrayed!... I should have learned from my mistakes with Albert!"

- Spencer's Memoirs 4

Two of the Wesker children that survived, Albert and Alex Wesker were his last and most loyal servants until Albert turned on him, revealing Spencer's secrets to the world, thus forcing Spencer to hide from the public. On the other hand, Alex was assigned to research the Immortality Virus for Spencer, according to Spencer's memoirs. Alex betrayed him and disappeared after the project's success, taking with her the results, her researchers and subordinates and the virus itself to Sushestovanie Island near Russia, leaving no trace behind.

Alex's whereabouts were unknown to Spencer, thus he assumed Alex is deceased, making Albert the sole survivor of the Wesker children. Spencer had lost all hope he had before of immortality and relied on Patrick, his butler to leak his current hiding place to Albert. He chose to remain silent about Alex or her whereabouts to ensure that Albert won't come after her also.

Death
"However, all was lost with Raccoon City. Despite that setback, your creation still holds great significance."

- Spencer's final words to Wesker



In the following years Spencer went into hiding, making sure he had little contact with the outside world. His hiding place had been his European estate, a castle located along the coast of the Atlantic ocean. Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine were given information from a reliable source on Spencer's location, hoping to arrest Spencer and get information on Wesker's whereabouts. Minutes before they arrived, Wesker himself paid a visit to Spencer, who was expecting him, much to Wesker's shock. Wesker realized that Spencer had been in control of everything that had been occurring over the years, even his own actions, and the two discussed Wesker's origins. Wesker was the result of genetic experimentation with the Progenitor virus along with thousands of others, known as the "Wesker children."



Spencer revealed that his goal was to create a new breed of humans -Albert included- and thus become a god over a new world. However, Albert was the only one that survived out of other individuals who were "manufactured" such as him, and the research itself was destroyed along with Raccoon City. His decision to reveal this proved to be a mistake, as revealing Wesker's origins ended up clearing any doubts to Wesker's plans, and resulted in his creation fully breaking free from his control. As Spencer stood from his wheelchair to confront Wesker face to face, Wesker violently thrusted his hand through Spencer's chest, whispering to him that the right to become a god was now his, and had never been Spencer's. Wesker viciously removed his hand from his chest, allowing him to topple over. As Jill and Chris entered the room, they unexpectedly found Spencer's corpse, with Wesker's bloodstained figure standing over him. After a battle in the estate, Wesker and Jill disappeared, and were presumed dead. Spencer's corpse was left lying on the floor of his castle.

Appearance
Despite various references made to him in previous Resident Evil games, Spencer's only confirmed appearance was in Resident Evil 5. He was shown in a flashback to be an elderly man in his mid-seventies. He had light blue eyes and completely white, curly hair. He wore a purple evening robe with purple slippers, though he may have just been settling into more comfortable attire for the night. He was shown in a portrait wearing more formal attire, albeit with an older-age sense in his fashion. He was slightly confined to a wheelchair, which he was connected to through wires, though he was able to stand up and face Wesker during the last moments of his life, at the same time disconnecting himself from his life support. The chair kept track of his heart rate. Spencer would break into racked coughing at random times while speaking, and also seemed to have breathing problems. Since he has never been seen before his incredibly old state, when Spencer's health problems began is currently unknown, other than it possibly being as early as the late 1990s.

Further Notes

 * In Umbrella Chronicles, Spencer is incorrectly referred to as "Oswell E. Spencer" in the game's credits by the voice of a news reporter.
 * In Resident Evil: Dead Aim, the massive Umbrella cruiser, Spencer Rain, was named after the Umbrella CEO.
 * Spencer makes a cameo in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. In the Nemesis ending, he is shown speaking with Director Colcord, about an "improvement" made to Nemesis.
 * Although his birth year was given as 1931 in the Resident Evil 5 Guidebook, this conflicts with some reports in the game itself as well as prior elements in the franchise, namely his friendship with James Marcus since their college years, as the latter was born in 1918.