Cyril Bencraft Joly

Lt Colonel Cyril Bencraft Joly MC (9 September 1918 – 2000) was a British Army officer, author and inventor. He served as an officer in the Royal Tank Regiment with 7th Armoured Division (Desert Rats) throughout the campaign in North Africa.

Life
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.

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

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

 * 1956: Take These Men (Penguin Books. no. 1207.) 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