Lieutenant colonel
Sir Thomas Cook
JP
Member of Parliament for North Norfolk
In office
1931–1945
Preceded byLucy Noel-Buxton
Succeeded byEdwin Gooch
Personal details
Born
Thomas Russell Albert Mason Cook

(1902-06-12)12 June 1902
Died12 August 1970(1970-08-12) (aged 68)
Fakenham, England
Political partyConservative
Labour
Spouse
Gweneth Margaret Jones
​
​
(after 1926)​

Sir Thomas Russell Albert Mason Cook JP (12 June 1902 – 12 August 1970) was a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom. He served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1931 to 1945.

Early life

Cook was born on 12 June 1902, the only son of Thomas Albert Cook,[1] who built Sennowe Hall in Norfolk in 1907.[2] He became Lord of the Manors of Stibbard and Great and Little Ryburgh.[3]

His paternal grandfather was John Mason Cook and his great-grandfather was Thomas Cook, who founded the travel agency Thomas Cook & Son.[4][5]

Career

At the 1924 general election, he was an unsuccessful candidate in the Labour held constituency of North Norfolk.[6] He was defeated again by Labour's Noel Buxton at the 1929 general election, and at the by-election in 1930 when Lady Noel-Buxton held the seat with a majority of only 139 votes after her husband's elevation to the peerage.[7]

At the 1931 general election, Cook won the seat from Lady Noel-Buxton with a majority of nearly 7,000.[8] He was re-elected at the 1935 election. At 34, he was knighted for "political and public services" in the 1937 New Year Honours, becoming "the youngest man to be knighted in a quarter-century."[3] During his time in the Commons, he was known as "the firemen's M.P." because he maintained a 14-man fire department on his estate.[9] In the Labour landslide at the 1945 general election, he was ousted by Labour's Edwin Gooch.[6]

He was a director of his family firm, the Thomas Cook & Son travel agency,[10] which had been founded by his great-grandfather.[3] Cook was a member of the Royal Norfolk Agricultural Association and served on the Norfolk County Council. From 1930 to 1955 he ran the Norfolk Chronicle. He was county commissioner for the Norfolk St John Ambulance Brigade and Master of the Glaziers' Company in London.[6]

Personal life

On 13 February 1926, Cook was married to Gweneth Margaret Jones at the Norwich Cathedral by John Willink, the Dean of Norwich.[11] She was the only daughter of late Spencer Evan Jones of Banwell Abbey, Somerset.[1][3] Together, they were the parents of one son and three daughters:[12]

  • Geraldine Beatrice Cook (c. 1927–2018),[13] who married Lt. Cdr. Leofric Douglas Temple-Richards.[14]
  • Thomas Cook
  • Rosemary Gweneth Cook, who married Michael Champernowne Litton, son of William Roy Upton Litton, in 1953.[15]
  • Hazel Elizabeth Margaret Cook (b. 1944), who married George Alston-Roberts-West, a younger son of Maj. William Reginald James Alston-Roberts-West and Constance Isolde Grosvenor (granddaughter of the 1st Duke of Westminster), in 1970.[16] Hazel was a lady-in-waiting to Princess Diana.[17]

Cook died on 12 August 1970 in Fakenham, England.[18] His descendants, the Temple-Richards family, live at his previous home, Sennowe Hall, Sennowe Park in Norfolk.

References

  1. 1 2 Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage. Burke's Peerage Limited. 1963. p. 2709. Retrieved 6 May 2022.
  2. ↑ "Sennowe Park". www.sennowepark.com. Retrieved 6 May 2022.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "The Camera Overseas: Thomas Cook & Sons Paid For This Shoot". Life. Time Inc. 8 November 1937. p. 106. Retrieved 6 May 2022.
  4. ↑ ""Let Me Re-Start An Old Bee Buzzing" Requests R.G. WaddingtonHonour for Leicester's Worthy Son". Leicester Mercury. 31 December 1931. p. 10. Retrieved 6 May 2022.
  5. ↑ "Mr. Frank H. Cook | Former Head of Famous Tourist Firm". The Daily Telegraph. 28 December 1931. p. 13. Retrieved 6 May 2022.
  6. 1 2 3 Craig, F. W. S. (1983) [1969]. British parliamentary election results 1918-1949 (3rd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. ISBN 0-900178-06-X.
  7. ↑ "NORTH NORFOLK BY-ELECTION | Bankers' Resolution | LADY NOEL-BUXTON CONFIDENT". The Guardian. 5 July 1930. p. 8. Retrieved 6 May 2022.
  8. ↑ "M.P.s Race to Claim Their Seats". Evening Sentinel. 10 November 1931. p. 10. Retrieved 6 May 2022.
  9. ↑ "Sir Thomas Cook, 68". The Philadelphia Inquirer. 14 August 1970. p. 30. Retrieved 6 May 2022.
  10. ↑ Self, Robert (5 December 2016). The Neville Chamberlain Diary Letters: Volume 3: The Heir Apparent, 1928-33. Routledge. p. 306. ISBN 978-1-351-96373-2. Retrieved 6 May 2022.
  11. ↑ "WEDDINGS". The Daily Telegraph. 15 February 1926. p. 11. Retrieved 6 May 2022.
  12. ↑ Debrett's Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage, and Companionage. Kelly's Directories. 1973. pp. 2028, 2403. Retrieved 6 May 2022.
  13. ↑ "TEMPLE-RICHARDS Geraldine Beatrice (née Cook)". The Times. 4 April 2018. Retrieved 6 May 2022.
  14. ↑ Hume, Lucy (5 October 2017). People of Today 2017. eBook Partnership. p. 1928. ISBN 978-1-9997670-3-7. Retrieved 6 May 2022.
  15. ↑ Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Peerage, Baronetage, and Knightage. Burke's Peerage Limited. 1956. p. 1037. Retrieved 6 May 2022.
  16. ↑ "Major G. A. Alston-Roberts-West and Miss H. E. M. Cook". The Daily Telegraph. 21 May 1970. p. 14. Retrieved 6 May 2022.
  17. ↑ "A Royal thank you". The Kingston Whig-Standard. 20 October 1984. p. 15. Retrieved 6 May 2022.
  18. ↑ "Sir Thomas Cook". Liverpool Echo. 13 August 1970. p. 10. Retrieved 6 May 2022.
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