The sudden collapse of travel company Thomas Cook in September 2019 brought an end to a great British institution with a history stretching back nearly 180 years. This was the company whose founder pioneered the package holiday, making cheap excursions available to the masses and revolutionising the great British summer holiday.
The man behind this famous enterprise was perhaps an unlikely entrepreneur. Born in the Derbyshire village of Melbourne on 22nd November 1808, into a strict Baptist family, Thomas Cook was apprenticed to his uncle, John Pegg, as a cabinet maker at the age of 14 but later became more interested in Baptist missionary work.
After moving to Market Harborough in 1832, he became involved with the local temperance movement. Soon he was one of
