Thomas Cook

<p>Thomas Cook (22 November 1808 – 18 July 1892) was the founder of the <a href="/facts/Travel_agency/t3MEAD5d">travel agency</a> <a href="/facts/Thomas_Cook_%2526_Son/5IvTaT9a">Thomas Cook & Son</a>. He was born into a poor family in <a href="/facts/Derbyshire/cWS0T6gV">Derbyshire</a> 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 <a href="/facts/Baptists/nMKlmaVb">Baptist</a> preacher. He was a supporter of the <a href="/facts/Temperance_movement_in_the_United_Kingdom/Ls8dgeA3">temperance movement</a> and his first foray into tourism was a railway excursion to <a href="/facts/Loughborough/Y3U0NEE4">Loughborough</a> for members of the Leicester Temperance Society in 1841. Following the success of this excursion, Cook, by now settled with his family in <a href="/facts/Leicester/zcSBswu3">Leicester</a>, began to organise tours further afield in the British Isles and, eventually, to the United States, Egypt and the <a href="/facts/Holy_Land/lju6CuUX">Holy Land</a>. In 1872, he went into business with his son as <i><a href="/facts/Thomas_Cook_%2526_Son/5IvTaT9a">Thomas Cook & Son</a></i>, 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.
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Thomas Cook open-in-new

Thomas Cook