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The history of Thomas Cook, from tours for teetotallers to boozy packages in Spain

An advert for Thomas Cook's first package train journey - Thomas Cook
An advert for Thomas Cook's first package train journey - Thomas Cook

Thomas Cook, one of Britain’s oldest travel companies, ceased trading last night. Here, Chris Leadbeater recalls a trip down memory lane with the company’s archivist

Thomas Cook. The two words have become synonymous with the modern concept of package travel, but they come with plenty of heritage. The company can trace its origins back 178 years, when the very first tour was organised by a Leicestershire printer who could not have envisaged that his simple scheme would become a colossal company.

Born in the Derbyshire market town of Melbourne in 1808, Thomas Cook was a man of religious conviction who, in 1841, began dabbling in transport plans for his fellow followers of the temperance (abstinence from alcohol) movement. That first jaunt was a rail hop from Leicester to Loughborough – but operations quickly expanded beyond local trains. A tour to Liverpool, just four years on, was booked by 1,200 people. It was so popular that Cook had to repeat it, for 800 further customers, a fortnight later.

The brand has survived two world wars, the reigns of six British monarchs, the rise and fall of the Soviet bloc and numerous changes to how we live. Not least the invention of flight.

“The company has witnessed a good deal,” says Paul Smith, the company’s archivist, picking up a brochure which marks one of the moments when British tourists became airborne. “Thomas Cook was the first travel agent to market pleasure flights,” he adds. “We placed an advert in The Times in Easter 1919. And we produced this.” It is, in truth, an unremarkable testament to so seismic a time – a pamphlet in drab olive-brown, a photograph of a converted First World War Handley Page bomber as a sole cover photograph. But the dream it is selling is there in the few metres of space between the plane’s wheels and the ground, a new era dawned.

There are plenty of other such echoes of a changing planet in Paul’s boxes and files. A 1928 brochure sings of the good days just before the Wall Street Crash, touting a tie-in between Thomas Cook and Cunard which started and ended in New York. It journeyed through the Caribbean and down the flank of South America to Buenos Aires, headed across the Atlantic to Cape Town, turned north along the torso of Africa in search of Cairo – then returned to the Big Apple via Naples, Monte Carlo and Madeira. The price for this princely expedition is listed as US$5,000 – around £50,000 today, Paul estimates.

A 1901 brochure for Thomas Cook
A 1901 brochure for Thomas Cook

Other artefacts retreat into the 19th century. The brochure that the firm produced in 1868 – the second time such literature was published after an initial experiment in 1865 proved successful – is a thing of joy, more geography textbook than promotional spiel. It is filled with maps which chart available travel routes, red lines spider-webbing across Europe to Rouen and Paris, Bologna and Florence. A reproduction of a Thomas Cook “circular note” – an in-house version of the traveller’s cheque – recalls a move into currency transactions in 1874. A “Nile Season: 1896-97” brochure salutes the rise of river cruising.

Post-war optimism on a 1954 brochure cover
Post-war optimism on a 1954 brochure cover

Further items shed breezy light onto the 20th century – a Fifties belle adorning a pamphlet for the company’s Prestatyn holiday camp that shouts: “This Is It! Your 1954 Holiday”; a 1963 brochure, disguised as a women’s magazine called “Holidaymaking”, firmly aimed at female decision-makers in evolving households; big hair and palm trees for gaudy 1985, youthful romance on a Greek island for 1996. Others deal in shadows – instructions on how to use the “Enemy Mail Service” that Thomas Cook helped to run in the Second World War, deploying company connections to deliver letters to people in occupied lands.

Nile cruises were offered in the 1890s - Credit: THOMAS COOK
Nile cruises were offered in the 1890s Credit: THOMAS COOK

The company has, of course, also changed after nearly two centuries. The Cook family sold it in 1928, and it has seen subsequent periods of national as well as private ownership. “But we’ve been trading under the same name throughout,” Paul adds. “Those two words ‘Thomas Cook’ have been there since Day One.” He of all people would know.

Italy and Switzerland were popular early destinations - Credit: THOMAS COOK
Italy and Switzerland were popular early destinations Credit: THOMAS COOK
A brief history of Thomas Cook

1841

Thomas Cook started organising leisure trips in the summer of 1841 when its founder, who gave his name to the company, organised a successful one-day rail excursion at a shilling a head from Leicester to Loughborough. During the next three summers Mr Cook arranged a succession of trips, taking passengers to Leicester, Nottingham, Derby and Birmingham. Four years later, he organised his first trip abroad, taking a group from Leicester to Calais. This was followed in the 1860s by trips to Switzerland, Italy, Egypt and America.

The handbook for an 1845 trip - Credit: THOMAS COOK
The handbook for an 1845 trip Credit: THOMAS COOK

1865

In partnership with his son, John Mason Cook, he opened an office in Fleet Street in 1865. In accordance with his beliefs, Mr Cook senior and his wife also ran a small temperance hotel above the office. The firm’s growing importance was demonstrated in 1884, when it transported a relief force to rescue General Gordon, from Khartoum, in Sudan.

An 1851 tour - Credit: THOMAS COOK
An 1851 tour Credit: THOMAS COOK

1869

In 1869, he hired two steamers and conducted his first party up the Nile. The climax of his career, however, came in September 1872 when, at the age of 63, he departed from Leicester on a tour of the world that would keep him away from home for almost eight months. It had long been his ambition to travel “to Egypt via China”, but such a trip only became practicable at the end of 1869 following the opening of the Suez Canal and the completion of a rail network linking the east and west coasts of America.

An ambitious itinerary from 1928 - Credit: THOMAS COOK
An ambitious itinerary from 1928 Credit: THOMAS COOK

1924

The company was incorporated as Thos Cook & Son Ltd in 1924, and in 1926 the headquarters moved from Ludgate Circus to Berkeley Street, Mayfair, a once aristocratic area which was now the centre of London society. Then, in 1928, Thomas Cook’s surviving grandsons, Frank and Ernest, unexpectedly sold the business to the Belgian Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits et des Grands Express Européens, operators of most of Europe’s luxury sleeping cars, including the Orient Express.

A 1938 brochure - Credit: THOMAS COOK
A 1938 brochure Credit: THOMAS COOK

1945

Thomas Cook was nationalised shortly after the Second World War when it became part of the state-owned British Railways. It benefited from a holiday boom after the conflict, which saw one million Britons travelling abroad by 1950.

Post-war optimism in 1954 - Credit: THOMAS COOK
Post-war optimism in 1954 Credit: THOMAS COOK

1965

In 1965, Thomas Cook's profits exceeded £1m for the first time, but it was facing stiff competition from younger rivals.

A growing focus on female holidaymakers in 1967 - Credit: THOMAS COOK
A growing focus on female holidaymakers in 1967 Credit: THOMAS COOK

1977

It was privatised in the 1970s with Midland Bank becoming its sole owner in 1977. Thomas Cook managed to survive the recession of the 1970s – a recession that witnessed the collapse of several travel firms – and enhanced its reputation for providing excellent service by launching a Money Back Guarantee scheme in 1974. It was sold by Midland in 1992 to a German bank and charter airline.

A 1986 Caribbean brochure - Credit: THOMAS COOK
A 1986 Caribbean brochure Credit: THOMAS COOK

2001

C&N Touristic AG, one of Germany’s largest travel groups, became the sole owner of Thomas Cook in 2001 and a new chapter in the company’s history began. Within a matter of months, C&N Touristic AG had changed its name to Thomas Cook AG and launched a new logo and brand identity. In the UK, Thomas Cook introduced its new three-tier mass-market brand strategy – Thomas Cook, JMC and Sunset – and the newly-branded Thomas Cook Airlines was launched in March 2003.

A brochure for Sunworld, bought by Thomas Cook in the 1990s - Credit: THOMAS COOK
A brochure for Sunworld, bought by Thomas Cook in the 1990s Credit: THOMAS COOK

2019

Thomas Cook, one of the world’s biggest leisure travel groups, with sales of £7.8 billion, 19 million annual customers and 22,000 employees, ceased trading in September 2019.