I was lucky enough to be gifted the flying log book of Ernest Rogers, a Navigator with 464 Squadron who were at Hunsdon during 1944. I was gifted this for showing his son around what was left of the airfield. He had no one else to leave it to, and wanted me to have it knowing my interest in all things RAF Hunsdon related. After a year I made a digital copy and returned it to Australia where it now resides at the RAAF document collection at Point Cook.
So many logbooks have been lost due to uninterested family members not realising the historical content of these books. Many were simply thrown in a skip when the houses were cleared after death.
A former neighbour was trained as a Pilot but remustered as a Navigator and flew many of the ‘Manna’ ops out of West Wratting Suffok, when he died his flat was being cleared by his family who almost dumped his flying logbook, I managed to convince them of its historical worth, but it could easily have been landfill by now.
I think too long has passed for a scheme to copy logbooks for the family. what ones do survive survive better in official hands like the NA where a copy can probably be made for the family instead of them having the original book. After all, when they pass on where do you think that logbook will end up? only one or two places, a refuse incinerator or a landfill site!
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