Police Woman

Chief Inspector Lilian Wyles was the very first woman to serve as a fully attested, ranking officer at Scotland Yard, having already been among the very first women to serve in the "Women's Police Force" instituted in 1914. The WP was disbanded not long after WWI, but Wyles managed to stay on as just one of three women in the MET. She came to prominence in part due to the notorious Savidge case, in which a male police inspector was accused of intimidating a female witness. After the case was settled, it was decided that women police should always take statements from women; Wyles was promoted to Inspector and later Chief Inspector, in charge of training up a large force of statement-takers. She retired in the early 1940's, and her memoir, A Woman in Scotland Yard, was published by Faber & Faber.