After her education at Thanet Hall, Margate, and a Paris finishing school, Wyles broke off the legal studies she had begun at her father's instigation, to serve as a hospital nurse in the First World War.

The patrols met with scorn from male policemen and from members of the public,[3] "Daunted at first, Wyles became accustomed to her visibility as another London sight, 'along with the Tower and Westminster Abbey'.

As one of the first women in such a position, her relations with male colleagues were uneasy, although she enjoyed the confidence of the chief constable of the CID, Frederick Porter Wensley, until his retirement in 1929.

In 1922 Wyles was given responsibility for the taking of statements in all cases involving children and young girls that arose north of the Thames....".

There she wrote her memoirs, A Woman at Scotland Yard: Reflections on the Struggles and Achievements of Thirty Years in the Metropolitan Police.