A native of Liverpool, Ralph W. Ashcroft was secretary and treasurer of the Plasmon Company of America in 1905 when SLC considered legal action against the company for mismanagement of his investments. Impressed with Ashcroft, SLC brought him to England with him in June 1907, and began to rely on him as his business adviser. At Ashcroft’s suggestion, the name “Mark Twain was registered as a trademark, a step in the formation of The Mark Twain Company (1908). In 1909 Ashcroft married Isabel Lyon, SLC’s private secretary. For a time Ashcroft and Lyon managed SLC’s business affairs, but in April 1909 he dismissed them. His lengthy and accusatory “Ashcroft-Lyon Manuscript” describes their mismanagement as he saw it. Ashcroft subsequently worked as advertising director for various Canadian business firms; he and Lyon divorced in 1926.