The diary, 100 x 120 mm, is comprised of two notebooks bound together totalling 374 pages, and is lettered 'A.M.W. South Africa 1901-2' on the front board. There are entries on most of the right-hand pages, and notes, photographs, passes, tickets, cuttings and other souvenirs on the left-hand side. The diary describes life on board ship, visits to the Cape, travels in the interior, and events of the period in South Africa, including comments on the ongoing Anglo-Boer war, or South African war, which had entered its guerilla phase. There are two pages of reflections on WIlson's work with knitting classes in the refugee camps in Bloemfontein and elsewhere, written in 1952. There is a botanical specimen (pressed flower) labelled 'Flowers from Caesar's camp' on folio 160, with fragments housed separately (Caesar's Camp featured in the Battle of Wagon Hill or Platrand during the siege of Ladysmith in Jan. 1900).
Diary is not a day-to-day account but is divided into sections as follows:
- sea voyage from Southampton to Cape Town, 3 - 11 Nov. 1901 [folios 3 - 44];
- stay in Cape Town and train journey to Bloemfontein, Nov. 1901 [folios 47 - 67];
- list of people entertained by the Wilsons between Nov. 1901 and Apr. 1902, including dinner party for Lord Milner (Alfred Milner, administrator of the Transvaal and Orange River Colony, 1901-2) [folios 68-84];
- journey to Johannesburg and Pretoria, Mar. 1902 [folios 85 - 124];
- visit to Brandfort, site of a British concentration camp, Mar. 1902 [folios 125 - 130];
- 'Easter Ausflug' [excursion] and visit to Thaba 'Nchu [Blesberg] [folios 131 - 158];
- journey through Natal to Durban, April - May 1902 [folios 161 - 191]
- 1952 postscript [folio 193].