Thomas Cook, founder of the world's first travel agency and enterpreneur extraordinaire. was born in England in 1808. Cook quit school at the age of ten and worked ar a series of jobs. including gardening, fruit selling, and bookselling. in 1828, at the age of 20, he became a Baptist missionary and an ardent supporter of the temperance movement. It was his in the cause of temperance that began his career in travel.