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Worthington, Frederic Franklin
Frederic Franklin Worthington, "Worthy," army officer, engineer, adventurer (b at Peterhead, Scotland 14 Sep 1889; d at Ottawa 8 Dec 1967). Orphaned at 11, he became the ward of a half-brother (later murdered by Villista irregulars) in Mexico, later going to sea and, as a "sailor of fortune," briefly commanding the tiny Nicaraguan navy in 1907. His earlier life in Mexico led him to sympathize with the ideals of Francisco Madero, for whose cause he fought during the revolution. At the start of WWI, he joined the Canadian Motor Machine Gun Brigade and was promoted to battery commander in France. He joined the peacetime Permanent Force of the Armed Forces, developing his doctrine of firepower plus mobility. In WWII, Maj-Gen Worthington founded the Canadian Armoured Corps and designed the prototype for the Sherman tank, used so successfully by the Allies in N Africa and Europe. Resigning his commission in 1947, he was appointed the first civil defence co-ordinator, a position which he held until 1957, stepping down to enter the business community.
