Donaldson was one of about 40 British employees of the British-owned Pacific Phosphate Company on Nauru when World War I broke out. Nauru was then a German colony. On 6 September 1914, the Germans deported the British employees to Ocean Island, part of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Protectorate. On 3 November 1914, an Australian force under Colonel W. Holmes, arrived at Ocean Island in the company's ship Messina, reembarked the British employees and returned them to Nauru, which was placed under Australian military control.

The diary gives an account of these events and those preceding and following them.

Educated at Cambridge, Harry Maude spent the years 1929-48 working as a civil servant and administrator in various Pacific Islands, in particular the British colony of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands. From 1948-57 he worked for the South Pacific Commission, following which he worked as a Research Fellow for the Australian National University Research School of Pacific Studies until 1971. He has published widely on aspects of Pacific Islands history and was a prime mover in the establishment of the Pacific Manuscripts Bureau. The bulk of his personal papers are held at the University of Adelaide Barr-Smith Library. A refined version of some of Professor Maude’s research notes on the history of the Gilbert Islands has been published as, H.E. Maude (compiler), The Gilbert Islands Observed. A source book of European contacts with and observations of the Gilbert Islands and the Gilbertese, Adelaide, Homa Press, 2006; 148pp.

Seven volumes of typescript and Ms research notes and transcripts relating to the history of the Gilbert Islands, microfilmed in the following order:
Gilbert Islands (general) 1870-1879
Gilbert Islands (general) 1880-1889
Gilbert Islands (general) 1890-1899
Gilbert Islands (general) undated
Gilbert Islands (general) to 1849
Gilbert Islands (general) 1850-1859
Gilbert Islands (general) 1860-1869
The documents in each file are arranged in chronological order. The notes were taken from such sources as the Archives of the Western Pacific High Commission and various newspapers. Interleaved is some of Maude's original correspondence relating to the Gilbert Islands. Topics covered in the notes include missions, the labour trade, copra, customs, trading activities, health, education, historical events, murders, Ocean Island and visits of ships.