Meet the soldier who fired the first shot of World War 1

UK: But the man who pulled the trigger at that turning point in our ­nation’s history was never to find out whether he’d killed his target.

The shot was fired by a 20-year-old private, Ernest Edward Thomas, a strapping young soldier of the 4th Dragoon Guards.

At 6.30am on August 22, 1914, Edward was part of a 120-strong force sent forward to investigate the advance of a German cavalry unit in the village of Casteau in Belgium.

But when the enemy were spotted on the road to Brussels the first exchange of hostilities involved no firearms at all. Instead there was a traditional cavalry charge and Brits armed with swords went up against German lances .

Only then did Edward make his move.

“I was rather noted for my quick movements and athletic ability in those days – I was first in action,” he said in an interview after the war. I could see a German cavalry officer some 400 yards away standing mounted in full view of me.

“Immediately I saw him I took aim, pulled the trigger and automatically, almost as it seemed instantaneously, he fell to the ground, obviously wounded. Whether he was killed or not is a matter I do not think was ever cleared up.”

The confrontation had lasted just a few seconds. A plaque commemorating it was unveiled in 1939 at Casteau, just 400 yards from a similar plaque for the last shot of the war.

The only British casualty in the August 22 battle was a horse, which was killed and sold to a local butcher.

Pte Thomas was later promoted to sergeant, and was mentioned in dispatches after storming a German trench. He found all the enemy dead, but was so impressed with the quality of their boots he tied them together and dragged them back to his comrades.

After the war, he became commissionaire at the Duke of Yorks Cinema in Brighton. He was a familiar sight in the town, wearing his medals. But he taken ill while on duty in February 1939 and died of pneumonia.

He was given a funeral with full military honours before being buried in an unmarked grave.