Who was the first British casualty in World War 2?

Answer 1

AnswerDepends on who you talk to but....

The news was quickly given to the armies during the morning of 11 November, but even after hearing that the armistice was due to start at 11:00, intense warfare continued right until the last minute. Many artillery units continued to fire on German targets to avoid having to haul away their spare ammunition. The Allies also wished to ensure that should fighting restart, they would be in the most favourable position. Consequently there were 10,944 casualties of which 2,738 men died on the last day of the war.[4]

Augustin Trébuchon was the last Frenchman to die when he was shot on his way to tell fellow soldiers that hot soup would be served after the ceasefire. He was killed at 10:45 am. The last British soldier to die, George Edwin Ellison of the 5th Royal Irish Lancers, was killed earlier that morning at around 9:30 am while scouting on the outskirts of Mons, Belgium. The final Canadian, and Commonwealth, soldier to die, Private George Lawrence Price, was killed just two minutes before the armistice to the north of Mons, in an Allied trench at 10:58 am to be recognized as one of the last killed with a monument to his name. And finally, American Henry Gunther is generally recognized as the last soldier killed in action in World War I. He was killed 60 seconds before the armistice came into force while charging astonished German troops who were aware the Armistice was nearly upon them.[5][6]

The last reported German casualty occurred after the 11 a.m. armistice. A Leutnant Tomas, in the Meuse-Argonne sector, went to inform approaching American soldiers that he and his men would be vacating houses that they had been using as billets. However, he was shot by soldiers who had not been told about the ceasefire.

The second to last known casualty, official last Canadian casualty, and possibly the last casualty killed in action out of all British Empire and Canadian forces, is Private George Lawrence Price (Regimental Number: 256265) (15 December 1898 - 11 November 1918), a Canadian soldier who served with serving with the 28th Battalion (Saskatchewan) Canadian Infantry.

On the 11th of November, Price was part of an advance to take the small village of Havré. After an unauthorized crossing of the Canal du Centre into the town of Ville-sur-Haine under German machine gun fire, Private. Price and his patrol moved toward a row of houses intent on pursuing the machine gunner who had harassed their crossing of the canal. The patrol had entered the house they had thought the shooting had come from, but found the Germans had exited through the back door as they entered the front. They then pursued into the house next door and again found it empty. George Price was fatally shot in the region of his heart by a German sniper as he stepped out of the house into the street, against contrary advice from a house occupant, at 10:57 AM, November 11, 1918, and died just 2 minutes before the armistice ceasefire that ended the war went into effect at 11:00 AM.

Answer 2

William L Shirer's 'The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich' states (pp 634), 'the first British casualty - a corporal shot dead on patrol - did not occur until December 9 1939'. No further information was available.

Answer 3

It is said the first casualty in war is the Truth. I think that is very apt. I cannot say more about it though, whether the first Briton was killed in France or Belgium, I know not.