Life of thomas cook

Seven years after opening the Fleet Street office, inCook decided to partner up with his son, John Mason Andrew Cook, who was already working for him. John provided a lot of commercial expertise, which allowed the company to grow. A lot was happening at once. Inthe year after the Fleet Street office opened, the history of Thomas Cook moved slightly further afield.

The agency launched escorted tours of the US for British travellers, and they were the first to do so! John was the one to lead these excursions, which included tours of Civil War battlefields and more. Later, ina partnership was born: Cook, Son and Jenkins. It left London in late by steamship — this headed across the Atlantic. Once in America the group boarded a stage coach.

They then took a paddle steamer to Japan, then travelled overland across China and India. A lengthy trip, of course, but a fascinating one nonetheless!

Life of thomas cook

In the s, when Thomas Cook himself had retired, John and his three sons grew the company even more. Bythere were offices around the world. The history of Thomas Cook is one that started in Leicester and before long, was present in AustraliaNew Zealand and many other far-flung corners of the globe. There are plenty of other things that Thomas Cook as a brand introduced to the travel industry.

The idea went on to be really popular. It moved to being published monthly later, inand is now known as the European Rail Timetable. It was proposed by Thomas Cook employee John Bredall who thought it would be wise to publish a compendium of timetables for steamships and trains across the European continent. Later life [ life of thomas cook ]. Legacy [ edit ].

See also [ edit ]. References [ edit ]. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online ed. Oxford University Press. Subscription or UK public library membership required. Transactions of the Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society Story of Leicester. Retrieved 8 January Crosby Heritage. Tourist: how the British went abroad to find themselves.

London: Bloomsbury. The Guardian. Huffington Post. Retrieved 9 January Historic England. Grand tours of both Europe and the USA followed. Again he moved forward by not just offering group trips but for individual travellers and producing the first holiday brochures. Panicking about whether they had bureau de change desks in the s? Don't worry, Cook's circular notes could be swapped for the local currency which would become the foundings of the Travellers Cheque.

Thomas Cook became a very wealthy man but kept his morals by all accounts. He provided fourteen cottages on the High Street in his home time for those in need. To add to this a laundry, bakehouse and Mission Hall were all gifts to the village. A fervent Baptist, Thomas believed in people helping themselves but recognised they could only do this if they were given the education and opportunity.

At the same time, he surmised that travel educated a person by broadening their mind and firing the imagination, relaxing people and giving them hope. So he hoped to practise his ideas by arranging for working class people to travel by train from Leicester to Loughborough to visit the Temperance quarterly meeting. For most of his passengers, this was their first time on a train.

Despite travelling Third Class in open air carriages, the whole trip was imbued with a holiday atmosphere, with villagers waving flags at the side of the tracks and Loughborough station decorated with banners, flags and props. Mr Paget, a local dignitary, opened up his property Southfields for the day-trippers to use. White tablecloths were laid out under the shelter of trees and a typical English picnic of bread and ham and later crumpets and cake was consumed.

Family games were arranged, and a cricket match enjoyed before minister after minister made rousing speeches accompanied by the band. It was the biggest teetotal party they had ever seen. Thomas always wanted to help the poorer people in society as he had encountered his fair share of hardship. His father and stepfather both died when he was young and year-old Thomas was apprenticed to a carpenter, working long hours and spending his free time in church.

He grew up wanting a fairer society and a better democracy.