Thomas Cook's first railway excursion

Background. Thomas Cook was a supporter of the temperance movement. In June 1841, while walking 15 miles from his home to Leicester for a temperance meeting, he conceived the idea of using railways to promote temperance. This inspiration led to the organization of a specific excursion for members of the Leicester Temperance Society.

The Excursion. On 5 July 1841, Cook executed his plan by taking a party of 485 members of the Leicester Temperance Society on a rail excursion. The journey ran from Leicester Campbell Street Railway Station to Loughborough, a market town in Leicestershire, to attend a temperance meeting.

Immediate Aftermath. Following the success of this excursion, Cook was by then settled with his family in Leicester, and he began organizing tours further afield in the British Isles. The sources also record that later in 1841 he moved to Leicester and set up as a bookseller and printer; the passages do not reconcile the exact timing of these moves.