Umbrella was founded in 1968 by Lord
Oswell E. Spencer; Sir
Edward Ashford and Dr.
James Marcus after the discovery of the
Progenitor virus the previous year. Another starting member, though not considered a co-founder, was Marcus' student
Brandon Bailey, who was with Marcus and Spencer when they first discovered the
Stairway of the Sun flower.
Shortly after Umbrella's founding, Ashford died from exposure to the virus,
[1] and Brandon was effectively-exiled to the
Umbrella Africa Laboratory, where he send virus samples to Dr. Marcus' newly built
research center.
In
1969, Edward's son
Alexander began the construction of the
Antarctic Base,
attached to which was a research centre where he began development of
his "Code: Veronica" project. This was his research into the gene that
controls intelligence. Two years later,
Alfred and
Alexia would be born from his research.
Seeking new information on Progenitor, Marcus had several of his
students infected with the virus. They were however, unable to survive
its effects and died, their corpses dumped in the Water Treatment
facility.
