Tom Burlinson was born in Toronto, Ontario on 14 February 1956 (St Valentine's Day). His English parents, Anthony T. Burlinson (born 1923, in Greenwich, Middlesex) and Angela Schofield (born 1927, in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk), had migrated to Canada after World War II. The family moved to New Jersey, United States in 1958. In 1962 the family moved to England due to his father's job and a young Burlinson took his North American accent to school. In 1965, his family moved again, this time to Australia. After six months his parents divorced and his mother and two younger sisters returned to England leaving Burlinson with his father and his older sister, Susan.