Lieutenant Colonel E.B. Worthington
17th Reserve Battalion

I do not believe that you could have searched your entire county and selected a better man than Colonel E. B. Worthington. A Sherbrooke boy from A to Z, a man who served his (our) country with dignity and distinction; a soldier who was an honor to the (our) dear old British flag; a man that no one can point their finger of scorn at; a man who will make a politician — No, No, a thousand times No — but a man who will make a statesman, an honorable Christian man who will represent the constituency with dignity.

(Letter to Sherbrooke Daily Record, 28 Oct 1925, 12)

Born on 1 December 1860 in Sherbrooke, Canada East, Edward Bruen Worthington was a notary, municipal official, former mayor of Sherbrooke, and long serving militia officer having first joined as a bugler in 1877. He was former commanding officer of the 53rd Sherbrooke Regiment, organized the 11th Hussars, and commanded the Eastern Townships Mounted Brigade since 1911. In January 1915, he replaced Lieutenant Colonel Struan G. Robertson in command of the 17th (Reserve) Battalion in England.

In September 1915, Worthington relinquished command and transferred to France, where he served as commandant of the lines of communication at Le Havre and Etaples. In recognition of his wartime contribution, he was appointed Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George in 1918. On return to Canada, he paid particular tribute to the work of the YMCA as essential to his duties facilitating logistics:

Hold up both hands to the boys in France, and if I had a thousand hands I would hold them up as a mark of gratitude to the whole-hearted devotion and untiring energy shown by all the personnel of the [YMCA] – both ladies and gentlemen – in France, who so untiringly ministered to the welfare and comfort of our boys over there. (Evening Mail, 10 May 1919, 11)

As the Conservative candidate in 1921 and 1925 federal elections, he unsuccessfully contested the riding of Sherbrooke, which his younger brother, Colonel Arthur Norreys Worthington, had represented from 1904 until 1911, shortly before his death.

Edward Bruen Worthington remained closely connected with militia affairs, veteran issues, and public life in the Eastern Townships until his death on 20 October 1945 at the age of eighty-five.