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Greymouth Evening Star, 18 April 1939, Page 5

Mr. Ernest Thomas, the. num who firi’il the first British shot on French soil in the Great War, and then fought unharmed for four years, died in Brighton on February 10 from a common cold. He was a private in the 4th Royal Irish Dragoons when the patrol went into action against, a troop of Uhlans on rhe Mons road on August 22, 1914. “I was raking cover when I saw the German officer giving orders to his men,” said Mr. Thomas. “I fired from 400 yards and he fell. That was the first British shot, in the war. Our patrol immediately opened fire on the column.” A monument is to be placed on the road to commemorate the shot. Mr. Thomas left the army a sergeant and became a kinema attendant. He was once of Brighton’s best-known perjcnaii.ties. He was 54.