Cyril Bencraft Joly
Born(1918-09-09)September 9, 1918
Died2000 (aged 81–82)
Allegiance United Kingdom
Service/branch British Army
Commands heldC Squadron 3 Royal Tank Regiment
Battles/warsSecond World War

Lt Colonel Cyril Bencraft Joly MC (9 September 1918 – 2000) was a British Army officer who served with 7th Armoured Division (Desert Rats) throughout the campaign in North Africa during World War II.

He described his experiences as a squadron commander in the Royal Tank Regiment (RTR) in Take These Men (1955), a (lightly fictionalised) personal narrative of the Western Desert campaign that is regarded as a classic of its kind. During Operation Crusader he served in the 3rd Royal Tank Regiment (3 RTR).[1]

Life

He was born in Mengtes, Yunnan, China and died at Winchester in Hampshire.[2]

Later in life he invented and patented an apparatus for providing a desired atmosphere in a sleeping space. It consisted of a frame for a bed with electrical fans to control the temperature.[3]

In his later days he lived at Tregatillian near St Columb Major in Cornwall[4]

Family

Henry Bencraft Joly (1857-1898; his grandfather) was British Vice-Consul in Macao and translator of Ts'ao Chan's Hung Lou Meng: The Dream of the Red Chamber, a Chinese Novel in Two Books.[5] He had three brothers. His only daughter, Vivien, married Hugh David Beddington, son of Keith Lionel Beddington CBE.[6]

Works

  • 1955 Take These Men (London, Constable and Company Ltd; reprinted Harmondsworth, Penguin Books, 1956; London, Buchan & Enright, 1985) ISBN 0-907675-40-9
  • 1980 Silent Night: the defeat of NATO . London: Cassell ISBN 0-586-06847-3
    • Operation Stille Nacht ISBN 3-7057-2018-X

References

  1. ↑ "A Literary Field Return". Retrieved 1 November 2023.
  2. ↑ "Cyril Bencraft Joly - I129 - Individual Information - PhpGedView". Archived from the original on 3 October 2011. Retrieved 11 March 2008.
  3. ↑ wikipatents Improvements in or relating to and apparatus for providing a desired atmosphere in a sleeping space
  4. ↑ Contemporary Authors. 1975. ISBN 9780810300361.
  5. ↑ https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9603 The Dream of the Red Chamber 1892-93
  6. ↑ The Times, Wednesday, 24 June 1964; p. 14; Issue 56046; col C


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