born Nov. 22, 1808, Melbourne, Derbyshire, Eng.
died July 18, 1892, Leicester, Leicestershire
British innovator of the conducted tour.
A Baptist missionary, in 1841 he arranged for a special train to be run to a temperance meeting; this was probably the first publicly advertised excursion train in England. He began to arrange excursions on a regular basis, and in 1856 he led his first grand tour of Europe. In the early 1860s he became an agent for the sale of travel tickets; with his son, John Mason Cook (183499), he founded the Thomas Cook & Son travel agency. In the 1880s the firm also organized military transport and postal services.