Papers of Lt. Commander Frederick L. Worcester, USNR
Frederick L. “Fritz” Worcester was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan on
May 19, 1898. He was the son of Dr. Dean C. and Nanon L. Worcester. His father was a professor of zoology at
the University of Michigan and one of the foremost experts on the Philippines at the turn of the century.
The
professor wrote one of the first definitive works on the Philippines in 1898 and was chosen to serve on the
first United States Commission to the Philippines after the Spanish American War.
Frederick resided in Manila from 1900 until 1913 and then attended the Brent Episcopal
school in Baguio until 1917 when his family returned to the United States. Worcester attended the University
of Michigan and returned to the Philippines after graduation in 1922.
Upon his return to the Philippines, Worcester
went to work for the Philippine Desicated Coconut Corporation of which he eventually became the president and general
manager. In December of 1941, he was placed on active duty with the United States Navy in the 16th Naval District
Headquarters in Manila.
Worcester’s service from the opening of the war until the surrender of the Philippines
took him from Manila to Corregidor to Cebu to Mindanao. Just prior to the evacuation to Corregidor on
December 31, 1941, Worcester directed the removal of valuable shipping from the Pasig River while under
bombardment. For this action he won the Silver Star Medal. Worcester then served on Corregidor until
sent on a special mission to the Visayan Islands on February 20, 1942. Worcester traveled with future
Philippine President Manuel Roxas and U.S. Naval Reserve officer Sam Wilson to transfer the printing plates
for Philippine currency out of harm’s way on Corregidor. In this pursuit, all three ended up on the
island of Mindanao evading the Japanese onslaught through the Visayan Islands. When surrender came on
May 10, 1942, Roxas went into captivity. Wilson and Worcester, though being separated earlier, both
made the decision to take their chances in the jungle. Worcester had planned on the eventuality and
being from Mindanao, he had friends set up an evacuation place him in the Bukidnon region of the island.
 Worcester, racked with malaria, hid out until late 1942, when he like many others
heard of an American General from Australia operating out of the Misamis Occidental region of Mindanao
Island. Worcester showed up at “General” Wendell Fertig’s headquarters and offered his services to
the reserve engineer officer with the rank of Lt. Colonel, who had promoted himself to Brigadier
General. Worcester had lived on Mindanao for many years and had valuable knowledge for Fertig
about the island and its many peoples. Worcester was made Fertig’s G-2, or intelligence officer
for the 10th Military District. It was an arrangement that did not last very long.
Worcester was almost immediately disillusioned with Fertig. When
he met him, Fritz was told by Fertig that he had full contact with MacArthur’s Headquarters and had
been named as commander of guerrilla forces in Mindanao and the Visayan Islands. This wasn’t
really true. Worcester also began to feel that Fertig did not have the competence to oversee
the operations in the 10th Military District and accused him of issuing contradictory orders and
brewing dissent within his own command. Finally, Worcester advised Fertig that the guerrilla
kingdom he had established on the north coast of Mindanao would be immediately wiped out should a
Japanese invasion come. Fertig disagreed and felt Worcester was panicking. Shortly thereafter
the Japanese invaded and Fertig’s command was scattered to the jungle just like Worcester predicted. By
November 1943, both were at complete odds with each other and Worcester left for the island of Negros
and the 7th Military District under Lt. Colonel Salvador Abcede.
Worcester’s days as a guerrilla ended in late January 1944. Along with
American civilians and others, Worcester was retrieved from the island of Negros by the navy submarine,
USS Narwhal. He was taken to Australia and after recuperation from malaria and other ailments he went
to work as the Seventh Fleet liaison officer. Worcester, however, would not have to wait too long to
return to the Philippines.
 After the return of U.S. forces to the Philippines in October 1944, Worcester’s new
job took him back to the Philippines. Then in January 1945, when MacArthur was making plans to return to
Luzon and the capital city of Manila a call was put out that all “old Manila hands” were needed to accompany the
forces into the city. Worcester signed on because he knew Manila very well, but also because his sister
and her family were civilian internees in the Santo Tomas Internment Camp and had been locked up for three years.
After his release from active duty, Worcester accepted appointment as Special Assistant to the U.S. High Commissioner of the Philippines. In this role Worcester did all the background research on all Filipinos that were charged with or rumored to be collaborators with the Japanese during the war.
Dr. Dean C. Worcster’s 1898 volume, The Philippine Islands and Their People, was the definitive work on the Philippine Islands at the turn of the century. (Courtesy Halsema Library, MacArthur Memorial Archives and Library)
USS Olympia, flagship of Admiral Dewey at the battle of Manila Bay in May 1898, as seen in Manila Bay in 1899. (MacArthur Memorial Photo, Worcester Collection)
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