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).

[2] Later in life he invented and patented an apparatus for providing a desired atmosphere in a sleeping space.

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