Thomas Cook

Thomas Cook (22 November 1808 – 18 July 1892) was an English businessman. He is best known for founding the travel agency Thomas Cook & Son. He was also one of the initial developers of the "package tour" including travel, accommodations, and the like. Early life Thomas Cook was born on 22 November 1808, to John and Elizabeth Cook, who lived at 9 Quick Close in the village of Melbourne, Derbyshire. At the age of 10, Cook started working as an assistant to a local market gardener on Lord Melbourne's estate. In 1828, he became a Baptist missionary and toured the region as a village evangelist and distributing pamphlets and, in the 1830s, he became involved in the temperance movement. On 2 March 1833, Cook married Marianne Mason (1807–1884) at the parish church in Barrowden in Rutland. A son, John Mason Cook, was born on 13 January 1834. A daughter, Annie Elizabeth, born on 21 June 1845, died in a bath aged 35 after inhaling poisonous fumes from a faulty water heater. Cook's first excursions