Edward Ashford, 5th Earl Ashford

Sir Edward Ashford, was one of the three founders of Umbrella.

Biography
Sir Edward Ashford was a childhood friend of fellow aristocrat Oswell E. Spencer and the promising virologist James Marcus. Together, the three founded the Umbrella Corporation to cover their viral research.

After Spencer's first expedition to the starway to the sun which consequently led to the discovery of the starway to the sun flower. Sir Edward Ashford opted to take the samples with him out of Africa and conduct his own research. And thus, the Progenitor Virus was discovered. Not long after, Ashford contracted the virus during an experiment in 1968 and died.

After his passing, his son Alexander, proved inapt in virology, and was unable to progress with his father's research. Due to this failure, the reputation of the Ashford family became tarnished whilst Spencer's influcen and Marcus's research came to dominate Umbrella.

Marcus continued Edward's research, which eventually led to the discovery of the t-Virus, and Ashford's own granddaughter, Alexia, embraced her grandfather's legacy and created her own variant in honor of her family's matriarch, the T-Veronica.



Profile
Sir Edward Ashford is described as a brilliant scientific mind who possessed none of the deranged ambitions of the other co-founders.

In S.D.Perry's novelisation it's also mentioned that Sir Edward was utterly obsessed with secrecy. In fact, his grandson Alfred Ashford goes as far as saying that Edward was responsible for the instalation of most of the riddles/hidden passageways in the Rockfort Compound.

Trivia


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


 * "The Ashford family bloodline was 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 man in his fifties.