It took the collapse of the travel company Thomas Cook – with the many reports of British tourists stranded abroad, sometimes in dire straits – to prompt me to look up the origins of this hitherto legendary firm. The original founder was a Victorian Baptist minister who sought to bring travel to the masses, in an era when it had previously been tailored to an elite.
And being a Victorian Baptist, Thomas Cook envisaged his travel company bringing the joys of sobriety – high-minded temperance – as well as improving cultural values to ordinary people.
