first British shot of the war (using her 4" Vickers gun) at her and light cruiser sinks her, the first German naval loss of the war. 6 August strikes mines laid by the Königin Luise and is sunk with some loss of life, the first British casualties of the war. , stationed in the West Indies, becomes the first Royal Navy ship to engage with the enemy when she pursues the (which escapes). Currency and Bank Notes Act gives wartime powers of banknote issue to HM Treasury; the first notes, with the signature of John Bradbury, are issued on 7 August. The sovereign rapidly vanishes from circulation. 8 August First Defence of the Realm Act passed. Sir Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition sets sail on the Endurance from Plymouth in an attempt to cross Antarctica. 9 August – World War I: rams and sinks German Navy submarine U-15 off Fair Isle, the first U-boat claimed by the Royal Navy. 10 August – all suffragette prisoners released unconditionally. 12 August – World War I: formal declaration of war by the United Kingdom on Austria-Hungary. 13 August – World War I: twelve Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2 observation aircraft from No. 2 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps, flying from Swingate, Kent, become the first British aircraft to arrive in France to join the British Expeditionary Force. 21 August – World War I: reconnaissance cyclist Private John Parr (aged 17) becomes the first British soldier to be killed on the Western Front, at Obourg in Belgium. 22 August – World War I: the British Expeditionary Force reaches Mons. Just after 06:30 British cavalryman Captain Hornby is reputed to have become the first British soldier to kill a German soldier using his sword, and Drummer Edward Thomas of the 4th (Royal Irish) Dragoon Guards is reputed to have fired the British Army's first shot of the War near the Belgian village of Casteau, the first British shot fired in anger in combat on mainland Europe since the Battle of Waterloo 99 years earlier. 23 August – World War I: in the first major action for the British Expeditionary Force, they hold the German forces at the Battle of Mons but then begin a month-long fighting Great Retreat to the Marne. 26 August World War I: The German West African colony of Togoland surrenders to Britain and France. Rutland Boughton's fairy opera The Immortal Hour is first