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.
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