The 11th City of Glasgow Battalion was responsible for the Ibrox area of the city. It is recorded as being commanded in 1941 by Lt.-Col. R.F. Walden who was succeeded in 1942 by Lt.-Col. J.A.S. MacLean. One of its members was Sgt. Donald M. McDiarmid whose identity has recently been discovered by happy accident and made known to staffshomeguard. What little is known of his life and Home Guard service is contained in a well-used but handsome leather wallet bearing his initials: fragments of information which give us the barest of glimpses of the man. The survival of the wallet is due wholly to the sensitivity and awareness of a volunteer in a Glasgow charity shop who noticed its significance and almost certainly saved it from the rubbish bin. This is what we learn from it. Donald M. McDiarmid (probably Donald McIntosh McDiarmid) was born in the first half of the 1890s. Do these carefully preserved images, still being carried around by him up to, presumably, his death show his sisters in their youth? And perhaps one of himself, from the 1920s or 1930s? Donald lived during the war years - as well as pre-war and for many years afterwards - at 1382 Paisley Road West in Glasgow. He was probably married and may have had children. We have no idea of his trade or profession, nor of what type of man he was, nor what sort of life he led. What we do know for definite, however, is that he was a member of the 11th City of Glasgow Battalion, Home Guard. His Certificate of Membership (undated) infers that he may initially have joined the 3rd City of Glasgow Bn. but this information was altered later to the 11th. The certificate is signed at some stage by R. E. Paterson o/c 7 Platoon, "B" Coy. (amended from 11 Platoon, "C" Coy.)  Records show that Lt. Paterson was a member of 11th Battalion by February 1941 and he may always have been affiliated to it. We do not know the date on which Donald volunteered for Home Guard service, nor the length of that service. He attained the rank of sergeant on an unknown date. This suggests the likelihood of Great War service - further implied by his age, of course - and possibly of his having volunteered in the earliest H.G. days, in mid-1940. The survival of two further documents, preserved by him and still carried in his wallet decades later, also suggests a clear level of involvement and dedication. On 19th April 1943 Donald joined and took out Life Membership in The Home Guard (Glasgow) Association. His membership number was 79 which suggests early involvement in that (perhaps newly formed) organisation. The second (undated) document shows him as member no. 51 of the W.Os. & N.C.Os. Association of the 11th Battalion. The Constitution shows that the Association's Aims and Objects were "to foster the interests of WOs and NCOs of the Battalion, in matters of a military and social nature, and to further the 'esprit-de-corps' of the Battalion". Staffshomeguard has virtually no information about the life of the 11th Battalion and has found no published history of its activities. One general history of the Home Guard in Scotland makes the briefest of references to the 11th, mentioning that that Battalion was one of several Glasgow units which adopted a communication system involving the use of pigeons. Perhaps it is significant, therefore, that a certificate in the back of Donald's copy of the Home Guard (Glasgow) Association Constitution and Rules booklet (above) confirms the subscription paid by him on 15th December 1943 to become a member of the Home Guard (Glasgow) Association Pigeon Racing Club. This is the only glimpse we get into Donald's leisure interests and perhaps his Home Guard activity as a whole. How good it would be to learn more about him, the life he led and the Home Guard service he rendered during the war years. But at least the fragments we have here will mean that his name and memory will survive amongst all those interested in the life of men on the Home Front, in Glasgow and everywhere else in the U.K., between 1939 and 1945.