Thomas Cook

Thomas Cook (22 November 1808 – 18 July 1892) of Melbourne, Derbyshire, founded the travel agency that is now Thomas Cook AG. He was brought up as a strict Baptist and joined his local Temperance Society. He worked as a cabinet maker and part-time publisher of Baptist and Temperance pamphlets, becoming a Baptist minister in 1828. John Mason Cook, his only son, was born in 1834. Thomas Cook or Thomas Cooke may refer to: // Thomas Cooke (author), English translator of the classics Thomas Cooke (VC) (1881–1916), Australian recipient of the Victoria Cross Thomas Cook (cricketer), Former Sussex batsman Thomas Cook (1808–1892), travel entrepreneur Thomas Cooke (footballer), American football player, and member of the 1904... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... is the 326th day of the year (327th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1808 (MDCCCVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Wednesday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... is the 199th day of the year (200th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1892 (MDCCCXCII) was a leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Melbourne is a small Georgian market town in South Derbyshire, England. ... Thomas Cook AG is the parent company of Thomas Cook, Condor Airlines and other such subsidiaries. ... A cartoon from Australia ca. ...

Thomas Cook and Son

With his only son, John Mason Cook, he formed a partnership and renamed the travel agency as Thomas Cook and Son. They acquired business premises on Fleet Street, London. By this time, Cook had stopped personal tours and became an agent for foreign or domestic travel. The office also contained a shop which sold essential travel accessories including guide books, luggage, telescopes and footwear. Thomas saw his venture as both religious and social service; his son provided the commercial expertise that allowed the company to expand. In accordance with his beliefs, he and his wife also ran a small temperance hotel above the office. Their business model was refined by the introduction of the 'hotel coupon' in 1866. Detachable coupons in a counterfoil book were issued to the traveller. These were valid for either a restaurant meal or an overnight hotel stay provided they were on Cook's list. Fleet Street in 2005 Fleet Street is a famous street in London, England, named after the River Fleet. ... 1866 (MDCCCLXVI) is a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Wednesday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar. ...

In 1865, the agency organised tours of USA, picking up passengers from several departure points. John Mason Cook lead the excursion which included tours of several Civil War battlefields. A brief but bitter partnership was formed with an American businessman in 1871 called Cook, Son and Jenkins; however after an acrimonious split the agency reverted back to its original name. A round the world tour started in 1872, which for 200 guineas, included a steamship across the Atlantic, a stage coach across America, a paddle steamer to Japan, and an overland journey across China and India, lasting 222 days.

Conflicts of interest between father and son were resolved when the son persuaded his father, Thomas Cook, to retire in 1879. He moved back to Leicestershire and lived quietly until his death. The firm's growth was consolidated by John Mason Cook and his two sons, especially by its involvement with military transport and postal services for Britain and Egypt during the 1880s when Cook began organising tours to the Middle East. By 1888, the company had established offices around the world, including three in Australia and one in Auckland, New Zealand, and in 1890, the company sold over 3.25 million tickets.^[1] John Mason Cook promoted, and even led, excursions to, for example, the Middle East where he was described as "the second-greatest man in Egypt".^[1] However, while arranging for the German Emperor Wilhelm II to visit Palestine in 1898, he contracted dysentery and died the following year. // Development and commercial production of electric lighting Development and commercial production of gasoline-powered automobile by Karl Benz, Gottlieb Daimler and Maybach First commercial production and sales of phonographs and phonograph recordings. ... A map showing countries commonly considered to be part of the Middle East The Middle East is a region comprising the lands around the southern and eastern parts of the Mediterranean Sea, a territory that extends from the eastern Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. ... German Emperor Wilhelm (born Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albrecht, Prince of Prussia 27 January 1859–4 June 1941), was the last German Emperor and King of Prussia (de: Deutscher Kaiser und König von Preußen), ruling from 15 June 1888 to 9 November 1918. ... Dysentery (formerly known as flux or the bloody flux) is the term for tenesmus (painful straining to pass stool), cramping, and frequent, small-volume severe diarrhea associated with blood in the feces. ...

His sons, Frank Henry, Thomas Albert and Ernest Edward, were not nearly as successful running the business. Despite opening a new headquarters in Berkeley Square, London in 1926, ownership of Thomas Cook and Son only remained with the family until 1928, when it was sold to the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits. During the 1930s, the travel agency consolidated especially from tours to Egypt and Palestine. Indeed the company was a principal employer in Egypt, involved in shipping, transport and touring operations. After the outbreak of World War II, the Paris headquarters of the Wagons-Lits company was seized by the occupying forces, and in turn the British assets were requisitioned by the Government. In 1941, the centenary of the company, Thomas Cook & Son Ltd. was sold to the four major railway companies with the aim of expanding it more. Ernest Edward Cook (4 September 1865 – 14 March 1955) was an English philanthropist and businessman and grandson of Thomas Cook. ... Berkeley Square in 1830. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Carlson Wagonlit. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000...

Company Ownership

Main article: Thomas Cook AG

The company was nationalised in 1948 as part of the British Transport Commission. In the early 1950s, the company began promoting 'foreign holidays' (particularly Italy, Spain and Switzerland) by showing information films at town halls throughout Britain. However they made a costly decision by not going into the new form of cheap holidays which combined the transport and accommodation arrangements into a single 'package'. The company went further into decline and were only rescued by a consortium of Trust House Forte, Midland Bank and the Automobile Association who bought the company from the British Government on 26 May 1972.^[2] Subsequently, Midland Bank acquired sole control during 1977. However, since US banking laws prohibited any national banks from owning travel agencies, the US operations were sold to Dun & Bradstreet in 1975. Thomas Cook AG is the parent company of Thomas Cook, Condor Airlines and other such subsidiaries. ... Nationalization or nationalisation is the act of transferring assets into public ownership. ... The British Transport Commission (BTC) was created by Clement Attlees post-war Labour government as a part of its nationalisation programme, to oversee railways, canals and road freight transport in Great Britain (Northern Ireland had the separate Ulster Transport Authority). ... This does not cite any references or sources. ... A package holiday or package tour consists of transport and accommodation advertised and sold together by a vendor known as a tour operator. ... Trust House Forte was a hotel and catering group operating in the UK and worldwide. ... The Midland Bank (now part of HSBC) opened as the Birmingham and Midland Bank in Union Street, Birmingham, England in August 1836. ... The Automobile Association (also referred to as The AA) is a British motoring organisation. ... This article does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... is the 146th day of the year (147th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1972 (MCMLXXII) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Midland Bank (now part of HSBC) opened as the Birmingham and Midland Bank in Union Street, Birmingham, England in August 1836. ... D&B redirects here. ...

After restructuring the company and entering into the travellers' cheque business the company prospered again. During the 1980s, Thomas Cook had its most visible business presence in the US, including robust Travellers Cheques sales to regional US banks. The company had enough business critical mass to set up a computed center near Princeton, NJ. Robert Gaffney and Samuel Malek were two of the notable decision makers in that era. Robert Maxwell bought substantial holdings in the company in 1988. He was expected to sell his holdings quickly as he was a publisher rather than a travel agent. However, when Crimson/Heritage purchased the US division of Thomas Cook for $1.3 billion in 1989,^[3] he still maintained a substantial interest in the company until his death. Restructuring is the corporate management term for the act of partially dismantling or otherwise reorganizing a company for the purpose of making it more efficient and therefore more profitable. ... A travelers cheque is a preprinted, fixed-amount check designed to allow the person signing it to make an unconditional payment to someone else as a result of having paid the issuer (usually a bank) for that privilege. ... Robert Maxwell Ian Robert Maxwell MC (June 10, 1923 – November 5, 1991) was a Czechoslovakian-born British media proprietor and formerly Member of Parliament (MP), who rose from poverty to build an extensive publishing empire. ...

In June 1992, following the acquisition of Midland Bank by HSBC, the company was sold to the German bank, Westdeutsche Landesbank, and the charter airline, LTU Group for £200 million. Due to contractual difficulties LTU Group sold its 10% shares to WestLB in May 1995. During 1996, after ironically being bought by American Express, the company bought the short-haul operator, Sunworld, and the European city-breaks tour group, Time Off. Within three years, the company had combined Sunworld, Sunset, Inspirations, Flying Colours and Caledonian Airways into the JMC brand - JMC being short for John Mason Cook. For other uses, see HSBC (disambiguation). ... WestLB AG is a universal bank based in Düsseldorf, Germany which is partly owned by the German state of Nordrhein-Westfalen. ... LTU International Airways (IATA: LT, ICAO: LTU, and Callsign: LTU) is a German airline. ... American Express (NYSE: AXP), sometimes known as AmEx or Amex, is a diversified global financial services company, headquartered in New York City. ... Flying Colours was a charter airline in the UK. The airline began operations in summer 1996 from with a fleet of Boeing 757-200 & Airbus A320 aircraft. ... Caledonian Airways was a Scottish international airline formed in 1961, initially using Douglas DC-7s. ... JMC Air was a British charter airline formed by the merger of Caledonian Airways and Flying Colours following the purchase of Thomas Cook by the Carlson Leisure Group. ...

Thomas Cook logo, 1999

On February 2, 1999 the Carlson Leisure Group merged with Thomas Cook into a holding company owned by West LB, Carlson Inc and Preussag Aktiengesellschaft ("Preussag").^[4] However, in mid-2000 Preussag acquired Thomas Cook's rival Thomson Travel and was forced to sell its majority 50.1% stake in Thomas Cook by regulatory authorities. In 2002 Thomas Cook was acquired by the German company C&N Touristic AG, which later changed its name to Thomas Cook AG. The group is jointly owned by Lufthansa and Karstadt. It has been rumoured that Karstadt has purchased the Lufthansa stake in Thomas Cook. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... is the 33rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the year. ... A holding company is a company that owns part, all, or a majority of other companies outstanding stock. ... Preussag AG was a German mining concern which later operated in a variety of industries. ... Thomas Cook AG is the parent company of Thomas Cook, Condor Airlines and other such subsidiaries. ... The Luftansa headquarters in Cologne, Germany. ... Karstadt in Frankfurt KarstadtQuelle AG is a German department store corporation, the largest in Europe. ... Karstadt in Frankfurt KarstadtQuelle AG is a German department store corporation, the largest in Europe. ... The Luftansa headquarters in Cologne, Germany. ...

References

External links

• Thomas Cook Biography