Were RAF Log books of MIA aircrew returned to surviving kin?

Hi all,

A family member RAF aircraft went missing from its base in (then) Ceylon in WW2 and he's sadly 'missing' from the family memory too after the pain of his loss and never speaking about it. I've secured a copy of his service record and traced him through AIR/27 squadron records for most of his service records.

I am told his sister kept all correspondence and things to do with him. She has since deceased but her daughter has kept everything and I hope to visit to search through the 'unsorted' boxes to see what more colour I can add to the research I've been doing of him.

In particular I am hoping to find his log books, but would these have been returned to the next of kin?

It would help me "expand" the search in their shared house if I had a level of confidence that it would have been returned to the family. I would assume an aircrew (navigator) log book would bear some semblance to the RAF pilot's logbooks that I am familiar with from the era..?

Any help or advice would be appreciated!

 

There was a concerted attempt by the RAF in late 1950s to provide flying log books to next of kin - included extensive press publicity.

Aircrew logbooks | Collections | Research | RAF Museum

By early 1960s the unclaimed logs were to be destroyed - a representative sample was retained by IWM/National Archives before the destruction order.

Since the 1960 some that were gifted to aircrew or NoK have since returned to public ownership by donation.

Ross

 

Thanks Ross!