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Cyril Bencraft Joly

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Cyril Bencraft Joly
Born(1918-09-09)September 9, 1918
Died2000 (aged 81–82)
Allegiance United Kingdom
Service / branch British Army
CommandsC 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).

Life

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

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.

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

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. He had three brothers. His only daughter, Vivien, married Hugh David Beddington, son of Keith Lionel Beddington CBE.

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

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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