2.252 ordinals with 'of'

You can specify the group which group the thing referred to by an ordinal belongs to by using the preposition 'of' after the ordinal.

• This is the third of a series of programmes from the University of Sussex.
• Tony was the second of four sons.

When ordinals are used like this, they usually refer to one person or thing. However, when they are used with a 'to'-infinitive clause or another qualifying phrase or clause after them, they can refer to one person or thing or to more than one. 'First' is used like this more than the other ordinals.

• I was the first to recover.
• They had to be the first to go.
• The proposals --- the first for 22 years --- amount to a new charter for the mentally ill.
• ...the fashion in which Theodore treats the Europeans, the first he has encountered.