Thomas Burand was born in January 1921 in Toledo, Ohio and grew up in Ohio and Will County, Illinois with two brothers, Ted and Jerry and a sister, Alice. His father, Otto, of German descent but born in Ohio, was the manager of a sanitary supplies company.
As a youngster, Tom was a bit of a rebel and was frequently in trouble. On one occasion, while driving his father’s car, he was involved in an accident. The car overturned and he almost lost all of his fingers – a fact noted years later on his draft card. Family rumour has it that at the time of the accident, Tom was being chased by the police!
Described as 5’6″ with blue eyes and brown hair, Tom was known as a good looking who had a knack of charming the ladies.
After leaving school, Tom carried out clerical work for DuPont’s, who supplied paints to the car industry. At the time of registering for the draft (February 1942) , he was working for F.C. Biebesheimer & Son, a plumbing company in Toledo.
Tom went into basic training with the US Army at Camp Kilner in New Jersey. He ended up in a clerical role with the 298th General Hospital, which began on 11th November 1942 at Frenchay Park.
The hospital was set up to receive casualties from the European and North African theatre. With the invasion of North Africa in Operation Torch, casualties would be shipped to Avonmouth and then transferred to Frenchay for further treatment. With the progress of the Allies across the Mediterranean, it then received patients from the Sicily and Italy campaign.
Time off allowed Tom to visit the local pub, the White Lion on Frenchay Common. One evening there he met a young lady named Doris Mitchell. He offered to buy her a drink and she asked for an ‘egg flip‘. He’d never heard of this cocktail before and so they were soon deep in conversation.
Doris Mitchell was born in Bedminster and grew up in Shirehampton with two brothers and a sister. Her mother died at an early age and her father was a seaman, working on banana boats out of Avonmouth docks. Rarely having a parent at home, she was mostly brought up from an early age by her elder sister, Violet.
At the time that Doris met Tom, she was working in a Lyons Coffee House but subsequently joined the WAAF. They started dated and particularly liked going to the Mason’s Arms in Lawrence Weston.
The 298th General Hospital was stood down on 10th May 1944 in preparation for D-Day for further training. Tom probably arrived in Normandy via Utah Beach in mid-July and would have been based in Cherbourg.
The 298th left Cherbourg at the end of October 1944 and set up in a field near Liége, Belgium. It saw a lot of action when casualties flooded into the hospital during the Battle of the Bulge. Tom was likely a witness to all of this.
In 1945, Tom was able to take leave and return to England where he married Doris Mitchell in Bristol Registry Office. Tom then returned to Belgium and remained with the 298th until after VE Day.
Following the end of the war, Tom was demobbed on 12th February 1946. He finished his service as a sergeant and was awarded, among other decorations, a good conduct medal.
Like many Bristolian war brides, Doris followed her GI husband back to the US, travelling on the Queen Mary, and they set up home in Toledo. Unlike most successful Anglo-US marriages however, Tom and Doris returned to Bristol and made their home in Bedminster in 1950. They adopted a boy in 1951 and Doris gave birth to sons, in 1952 and 1953.
Tom settled into Bristolian life becoming a Bristol City supporter from the start. Initially he got a job for Bristol Omnibus Company and wanted to become a driver. However, according to his family, he couldn’t as he kept driving on the wrong side!
The family subsequently moved to Long Cross in Lawrence Weston and Tom worked on the furnaces at the Nation Smelting Works at Avonmouth. He moved onto ICI where he remained until he retired immersing himself in English life as he represented them at skittles!
Tom never forgot his roots but was only able to make two return trips to the United States, in 1986 and 1996. However, after he died in 2015, half of his ashes were returned to Ohio and buried in Canford Cemetery along with Doris, who died in 2013.
Sources
Family photos and information supplied by Tom and Doris’ daughter-in-law, Dot Burand with many thanks.
Additional information from www.Fold3.com
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US Military in WW2 Bristol 