The recent appointment of Cressida Dick as the first female commissioner of the Metropolitan Police is a reminder that women have become an integral part of our police forces and are now reaching the most senior ranks in their profession despite the setbacks of past years when such an appointment would not have been possible because their duties were routine and usually confined to dealing only with female prisoners and children.

Their entry into British police forces over the past century has been a slow process and it was a Bourne woman who played a major role in this transition, not only as the first female police officers but also the first to become a member of the CID with the Metropolitan Police based at Scotland Yard where she served for 30 years.

Lilian Mary Elizabeth Wyles was born on 31st August 1885, only daughter of Joseph and Florence Wyles, her father owning the Star Brewery in Manning Road and which later became known as Bourne Brewery Limited. The family had a house in West Street where they lived in some style with a cook, housemaid and nursemaid to look after Lilian and her younger brother Arthur. They subsequently moved to Peterborough and then to London, always retaining a middle class respectability.

Lilian had a formal education at a private school, Thanet Hall at Margate in Kent, followed by a finishing school in Paris and then began studying for a career in law but was interrupted by the outbreak of the Great War in 1914. She took up hospital work as her contribution to the war effort but was taken seriously ill in 1917 and went to South Africa to recuperate. She returned the following year and became involved with the National Union of Women Workers, organised by Mrs Sofia Stanley, which was organising women police patrols to protect and assist young girls attracted to London from the provinces where they became prey to sexual exploitation, prostitution and exposure to drugs.

She joined the organisation in June 1918 and when the war ended in November, the street patrols were taken over by the Metropolitan Police. Lilian was one of 25 women who began training for the new role and her official record describes her as: "Lilian Mary Elizabeth Wyles, height 5 ft 5 in, warrant number 23, Woman Patrol No 4, officially joined as an unattested Women Patrol on 17th February 1919."

In March, she was promoted to sergeant with responsibility for Central London and the East End which was notorious for vice and low life but despite the risks, the women had no powers of arrest and no pension rights. In addition, the force had no idea what they should wear but eventually, the first 25 recruits were fitted out with uniforms designed and made by Harrods, the London department store.

Lilian soon gained a reputation for diligence, efficiency and good sense, and on 8th January 1921 she was again promoted, this time to inspector second class. Her success indicated that an acceptance of the need for female officers appeared to be going smoothly until early in 1922 when the government announced its intention to disband the patrols.

This turn of events had been inevitable. The employment of women police patrols in an official capacity had been agreed by Sir Neville Macready, the Home Secretary and Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, only on an experimental basis, a trial that could be abandoned at any time which probably accounts for the restriction in their powers. Refusing to go down without a fight, Lilian and her superiors vigorously petitioned all concerned that they should stay and eventually it was decided that 25 of them would be retained as women officers, this time with the same rights as those given to their male counterparts.

Lilian was among those who were re-engaged on 27th December 1922 with the rank of inspector and at the same time, she became a permanent member of the Criminal Investigation department, the CID, the first in the history of the Metropolitan Police. She received a further promotion to Woman Detective Inspector First Class on 18th February 1935 and was also awarded six official commendations for her work on cases involving prostitution, indecency, incest and abortion.

She left the force on 16th February 1949 and soon afterwards was awarded the British Empire Medal by King George VI in recognition of her thirty years of dedicated service although it was a career she did not particularly seek. "I am perfectly sure that I did not in the least want to be a policewomen", she wrote later. "In fact at the time, I had no real desire to be anything in particular."

The incentive to join the police force could not have been financial, especially from someone of Lilian's social standing, because the pay for women patrol sergeants was a mere £2 2s. a week together with a 12s. a week war bonus. "The money would not have been an inducement to anyone", she said later. "If asked to live on the pittance I was to receive, I would have said it was impossible to do so. It was useful pocket money, no more."

Her career had been a distinguished one, in spite of the hostility she faced from male colleagues, graphically described in her autobiography “A Woman at Scotland Yard - Reflections on the struggles and achievements of thirty years in the Metropolitan Police” (Faber and Faber, 1952). At the time of her departure, women had become firmly entrenched in the CID and from one lone woman, there was then a permitted strength of 48 while the Special Branch had two women officers.

"A secure position has been made for the women of the CID", she wrote. "They have been able to step into positions waiting to be filled, their duties are clear cut and defined, and they are accepted. They cannot understand how hard was the birth, how slow the growth of privileges they now enjoy. The venture has come to full stature; it blossoms and expands; it is time for those who had passed through all the early stages to go; to sit back; to watch others guide the child now grown to maturity to further and still further development. Perhaps the thirty years of struggle, work, and often disappointment, had not been fruitless years and my efforts had not been in vain."

Lilian never married and on leaving the police force, retired to Cornwall where she died on 13th May 1975 at the age of 89.