[2] They collaborated on major excavations in Wales and England (including Segontium, Caerleon, and Verulamium) and their investigation of Maiden Castle, Dorset had been ongoing for two years when she died unexpectedly from complications following a minor operation.

He served in the artillery in the First World War, initially as an instructor in the University of London Officers' Training Corps, and later at other places in Scotland and England.

They also published their results quickly after the excavations concluded, and Mortimer proved adept at generating favourable publicity.

The Wheelers continued to work together, performing many major excavations within Britain, including that of the Roman villa at Lydney Park in 1928–29, Roman Verulamium (modern-day St Albans) in 1930–34, and the late Iron Age hill-fort of Maiden Castle, Dorset, which was assistant directed by Molly Cotton from 1934 to 1938.

[5] Her aforementioned contribution to the Wheeler-Kenyon method (which was named after her, her husband and Kathleen Kenyon) is also a highlight of her professional career that continues to be important in archaeology today.

Her later life was blighted by the open unfaithfulness of her sexually adventurous husband, and she also had ill-health, including blackouts and gastric problems.

After a minor operation in early 1936, she became seriously ill and died from a pulmonary embolism at the National Temperance Hospital in London.

She spent much of her early career in the shadow of her husband, like many earlier female archaeologists,[9] but later work was published under their joint names and their contemporaries considered "the Wheelers" to be a team; some[who?]