‘Accommodation had to be simple, because money was short’ – Celebrating travel innovator Colin Murison Small

Boxing Day, 1958: a dozen travellers comprising the first-ever chalet skiing party left London Victoria by train for the port of Newhaven. They sailed overnight to Dieppe on the north coast of France. Then began the long and winding rail journey to Grindelwald in Switzerland. In those austere post-war days, the holiday looked like an impossible dream: two weeks of skiing, being looked after by hosts in a chalet and plied with unlimited wine.

Their guide and organiser was Colin Murison Small, who has died at the age of 93.

Many 21st-century travellers will not know his name. But with vision, courage and innovation, Mr Murison Small helped create the travel industry that British holidaymakers