She was born Lilian Elizabeth Allen in Devonshire Street, Marylebone [1] in 1890,[2] and later added her mother's maiden name.
[4] Her career was primarily on the concert stage, her physique being unsuited to operatic performance, but an early theatrical appearance was in the comedy Eastward Ho!
Her appearances included the Handel Festival at the Crystal Palace;[6] a revival of Sullivan's The Golden Legend;[7] Messiah with Sir Thomas Beecham and Malcolm Sargent;[8][9] Verdi's Requiem (Sargent);[10] Beethoven's Choral Symphony (Sir Henry J.
Wood);[11] Handel's Solomon (Beecham);[12] Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's The Song of Hiawatha (Sargent);[13] and Mendelssohn's Elijah (Sir Adrian Boult).
[14] In addition to the standard repertoire, Stiles-Allen sang in Schoenberg's Gurre-Lieder under the composer;[15] Delius's A Mass of Life (Beecham);[16] and Mahler's Eighth Symphony (Wood).