The demise of Thomas Cook, Britain’s most venerated travel agency, is shaping up as one of the country’s greatest corporate fiascos.

When the agency went out of business on Monday, it left some 150,000 vacationers from the United Kingdom stranded on foreign soil. It put about 21,000 jobs at risk. It prompted calls for an investigation of its management and clawback of executive pay.

So what would Thomas Cook, the man, think of what has became of Thomas Cook, the company?

“He would be shocked and appalled,” said Piers Brendon, author of “Thomas Cook: 150 Years of Popular Tourism.” “Greed and incompetence have wrecked a fine company which has a name that resonated for nearly 200 years.”

Not surprisingly, the company has different theories for its collapse. In May, it reported a gargantuan loss of 1.5 billion pounds, about $1.9 billion, for the first half of the year. The heat wave of 2018 had “reduced customer demand for winter sun.” More important, its chief executive, Peter Fankhauser, cited uncertainties surrounding Brexit.