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See also: English travelling See also: agent, was See also: born at Melbourne in See also: Derbyshire on the 22nd of See also: November 18o8
.
Beginning See also: work at the age of ten, he was successively a gardener's help and a See also: wood-See also: turner at Melbourne, and a printer at Lough-See also: borough
.
At the age of twenty he became a See also: Bible-reader and See also: village missionary for the county of See also: Rutland; but in 1832, on his See also: marriage, combined his wood-turning business with that occupation
.
In 1836 he became a See also: total abstainer, and subsequently became actively associated with the See also: temperance See also: movement, and printed at his own expense various publications in its See also: interest, notably the See also: Children's Temperance See also: Magazine (184o), the first of fts kind to appear in See also: England
.
In See also: June 1841 a large meeting was to be held at See also: Loughborough in connexion with this movement, and See also: Cook was struck with the idea of getting the Midland CountiesRailwayCompany to run a See also: special train from See also: Leicester to the meeting
.
The See also: company consented, and on the 5th of See also: July there were carried 570 passengers from Leicester to Lough-borough and back at a See also: shilling a See also: head
.
This is believed to be the first publicly-advertised excursion train ever run in England—private " specials," reserved for members of institutes and similar bodies, were already in use
.
The event caused See also: great excitement, and Cook received so many applications to organize similar parties that he henceforward deserted wood-turning, while continuing his printing and See also: publishing
.
The summers of the next three years were occupied with excursions like the first; but in 1845 Cook advertised a pleasure-trip on a more extensive See also: scale, from Leicester to Liverpool and back, with opportunities for visiting the Isle of See also: Man, See also: Dublin and Welsh See also: coast
.
A See also: Hand-See also: book of the Trip to Liverpool was supplied for the use of travellers
.
In the previous See also: year Cook had entered into a permanent arrangement with the Midland Railway Company to place trains at his disposal, for which he should provide the passengers
.
A trip to Scotland followed, and the excursionists were received in See also: Glasgow with See also: music and salute of guns
.
The next great impetus to popular travel was given by the Great See also: Exhibition of 1851, which Cook helped 165,000 visitors to attend
.
On the occasion of the See also: Paris exhibition of 1855 there
was a Cook's excursion from Leicester to See also: Calais and back for if:1os
.
The following year saw the first See also: grand circular tour in See also: Europe
.
This See also: part of Cook's activity largely increased after 1863, when the Scottish railway managers broke off their engagements with him, and See also: left him See also: free for more distant enterprise
.
See also: Switzerland was opened up in 1863, and See also: Italy in 1864
.
Up to this See also: time " Cook's tourists " had been personally conducted, but now he began to be an agent for the sale of English and See also: foreign tickets, the holders of which travelled in-dependently
.
Switzerland was the first foreign country accessible under these conditions, and in 1865 nearly the whole of Europe was included in the scheme
.
Its extension to the See also: United States followed in 1866
.
For the benefit of visitors to the Paris exhibition, Cook made a fresh departure and leased a hotel there
.
In the same year began his See also: system of " hotel-coupons," providing accommodation at a fixed See also: charge
.
The year 1869 was marked by an extension of Cook's See also: tours to See also: Palestine, followed by further developments of travel in the See also: East, his son, See also: John
See also: Mason Cook, (1834–1899), being appointed in 1870 agent of the khedivial See also: government for passenger See also: traffic on the See also: Nile
.
The Franco-See also: German War of 187o–1871 was expected to damage the tourist system, but, as a See also: matter of fact, encouraged it, through the demand for combination, See also: international tickets enabling travellers to reach the See also: south of Europe without See also: crossing the belligerent countries
.
At the termination of the war a party of See also: American freemasons visited Paris under J
.
M
.
Cook's guidance, and became the precursors of the See also: present vast American tourist traffic
.
At the beginning of 1872 J
.
M
.
Cook entered into formal partnership with his See also: father, and the See also: firm first took the name of See also: Thomas Cook & Son
.
In 1882, on the outbreak of Arabi
See also: Pasha's See also: rebellion, Thomas Cook & Son were commissioned to convey See also: Sir Garnet Wolseley and his suite to See also: Egypt, and to transport the wounded and sick up the Nile by See also: water, for which they received the thanks of the war office
.
The firm was again employed in 1884 to convey General See also: Gordon to the Sudan, and the whole of the men (18,000) and stores necessary for the expedition afterwards sent to relieve him
.
In 1889 Thomas Cook & Son acquired the exclusive right of carrying the mails, specie, soldiers and officials of the See also: Egyptian government along the Nile
.
In 1891 the firm celebrated its See also: jubilee, and on the 19th of July of the following year Thomas Cook died
.
He had been afflicted with See also: blindness in his declining - years
.
His son, J
.
M . Cook, died in 1899, leaving three sons, all actively engaged in the business . |
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