An uncountable cardinal κ is called ${\omega _1}$-strongly compact if every κ-complete ultrafilter on any set I can be extended to an ${\omega _1}$-complete ultrafilter on I. We show that the first ${\omega _1}$-strongly compact cardinal, ${\kappa _0}$, cannot be a successor cardinal, and that its cofinality is at least the first measurable cardinal. We prove that the Singular Cardinal Hypothesis holds above ${\kappa _0}$. We show that the product of Lindelöf spaces is κ-Lindelöf if and only if $\kappa \ge {\kappa _0}$. Finally, we characterize ${\kappa _0}$ in terms of second order reflection for relational structures and we give some applications. For instance, we show that every first-countable nonmetrizable space has a nonmetrizable subspace of size less than ${\kappa _0}$.

A short proof is given of an internal characterization of completely regular spaces due to J. Kerstan.