During the Second World War, Mitford joined the British Army, and was initially deployed to Italy and North Africa. A Nazi sympathizer, Mitford was sent to fight in the Pacific after saying he did not want to fight against Germany. He was killed in action in 1945.
In the late 1920s, Mitford studied law in Berlin, and it was at that time that he displayed a favour for the Nazi Party.[2]
Military service and death
While serving, at first Mitford chose to serve in Italy and North Africa, and then in Burma, since he did not want to fight against Germany.[4]
Mitford was killed on 30 March 1945 in Burma, while serving with the Devonshire Regiment. He is buried at Taukkyan War Cemetery.[1] His sister Diana, Lady Mosley, wrote: "his loss was something from which I never recovered for the rest of my life". His father, Lord Redesdale, erected a memorial tablet inside St Mary's Church, Swinbrook, near their home, Swinbrook House.[2]The 2nd Baron Redesdale, Lady Mosley, Nancy Mitford, and Unity Mitford are buried in the churchyard, while Pamela Mitford is buried in the northwest of the tower.[5] Another tablet to the memory of Tom Mitford is inside Holy Trinity Church, Horsley, just south of Rochester, Northumberland, near their estate in Northumberland.[6]
Mitford had an alleged affair with James Lees-Milne, a writer, when both were attending Eton.[8]
In the summer of 1930, Mitford met Sheilah Graham, who would later describe him in her memoirs, Beloved Infidel, as "a youthful edition of his father and, at twenty-one, one of the handsomest men I had ever seen".[9]
In the 1930s, he was a lover of Austrian-born dancer Tilly Losch, while she was married to art patron Edward James.[10]