Thomas Cook

Thomas Cook (22 November 1808 – 18 July 1892) was the founder of the travel agency Thomas Cook & Son. He was born into a poor family in Derbyshire and left school at the age of ten to start work as a gardener's boy. He served an apprenticeship as a cabinet maker before becoming an itinerant Baptist preacher. He was a supporter of the temperance movement and his first foray into tourism was a railway excursion to Loughborough for members of the Leicester Temperance Society in 1841. Following the success of this excursion, Cook, by now settled with his family in Leicester, began to organise tours further afield in the British Isles and, eventually, to the United States, Egypt and the Holy Land. In 1872, he went into business with his son as Thomas Cook & Son, with a head office in London. Following his retirement in 1878, he returned to Leicester and took an interest in the Baptist church and charitable work until his death. Cook is credited with having, through his all-inclusive tours, made travel and tourism accessible to a wider public.

Early life Thomas Cook was born on 22 November 1808 to Elizabeth and John Cook, who lived in a small cottage in Quick Close in the village of Melbourne, Derbyshire. His father was a labourer who died when Cook was four years old; his mother was the daughter of a New Connexion Baptist preacher. At the age of 10, Cook left school and started working as a gardener's boy on Lord Melbourne's estate, while continuing his education at Sunday School and later becoming a Sunday School teacher. In 1828, he left an apprenticeship as a cabinet-maker to become an itinerant Baptist preacher, distributing tracts and setting up Sunday Schools in villages in the South Midlands for an annual salary of £36. In 1829, he met Marianne Mason, a farmer's daughter and Sunday School teacher from Barrowden in Rutland. The couple married on 3 March 1833 at St Peter's Church, Barrowden and set up home in Market Harborough in Leicestershire, with Cook working as a wood turner. They had one surviving son, John Mason Cook, and daughter, Annie Elizabeth.

First excursions

While he was living at Market Harborough, Cook became a supporter of the temperance movement. In 1836, both he and Marianne signed the pledge and Cook became active in campaigning for abstention from alcohol. "A thought flashed through my brain – what a glorious thing it would be if the newly developed powers of railways and locomotion could be made subservient to the promotion of temperance". Cook's plan came to fruition on 5 July 1841, when he took a party of 485 members of the Leicester Temperance Society on a rail excursion from Leicester Campbell Street Railway Station to Loughborough to attend a temperance meeting. He charged passengers one shilling each to cover the cost of hiring a train from the Midland Counties Railway.

Later in the year 1841, Cook moved to Leicester and set up as a bookseller and printer. He also ran two temperance hotels with his wife and his mother. In 1845, he organised his first profit-making excursion, taking a party to Liverpool, Caernarfon and Mount Snowdon. The following year he branched out with tours to Scotland and in 1851 he arranged for 165,000 people to travel to the Great Exhibition in London.

Foreign tours Having organised tours in England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and the Isle of Man over the previous decade, Cook planned his first excursion abroad in 1855, "a grand circular tour of the Continent", visiting major cities in Belgium, Germany and France and enabling tourists to visit the Paris Exhibition. In 1862, Scottish railway companies stopped issuing cheap group tickets for tour groups and Cook turned his attention further afield, to Switzerland and Italy, the United States, Egypt and the Holy Land. In 1868, the company introduced "hotel coupons" which were issued to travellers and could be exchanged for restaurant meals and hotel accommodation. "Circular notes", a form of traveller's cheque, were introduced in 1874 and enabled tourists to obtain local currency. His wealth at death was £2731 7s. 2d His son died in 1899, leaving an estate of £622,534 3s. 4d. The business of Thomas Cook & Son was then run by Cook's three grandsons. In Leicester he is commemorated by his statue outside the railway station in London Road and a blue plaque on his home, Thorncroft. Although the firm and its clients were often criticized by conservative commentators as a vulgarizing and destructive influence, Cook’s promotion of 'excursion' travel allowed a huge number of ordinary British men and women to experience travel in a way that would have been unimaginable for their parents and grandparents. In doing so, Cook transformed the fields of tourism and leisure.