He completed his Licentiate of Medicine at the Karolinska Institute in 1899 and later became a naval surgeon in Karlskrona, where he oversaw the rebuilding of the Navy's hospital between 1906 and 1911.

He represented Sweden at international medical conferences and published around fifty works, focusing on naval surgery and healthcare.

He received a Bachelor of Medical Sciences degree from Uppsala University in 1895 and he performed study trips in Belgium, England, France, the Netherlands, Germany and Austria.

Nilson was a doctor exhibitioner in the Swedish Navy from 1898 to 1902 and received a Licentiate of Medicine degree at Karolinska Institute in Stockholm in 1899.

[1] In addition, he was from 1919 to 1940 the chief physician in the insurance company Lifförsäkrings-aktiebolaget De förenade[2] and chief physician at the Reservespital XV in Vienna in 1916[2] and the Swedish government representative at the International Red Cross Conferences in Geneva in 1925 and in The Hague in 1928 as well as at the International Congress of Military Medicine and Pharmacy in London in 1929.