The daughter of a schoolteacher, Elvira Lyons was educated at Brisbane Grammar School and embarked upon a business career, working for Nestles until 1928. In 1934, Lyons completed a Certificate in Social Studies at the BSST. She became secretary of the Royal Society for Mothers and Babies (later known as Tresillian), and continued to serve the Society until 1955. Lyons also became a member of the CTSWA and an executive member (later president) of the NSW branch of the Australian Association of Social Workers. She was a founder of Sydney's Catholic Welfare Bureau in 1941. Throughout the 1940s and early 1950s, Lyons and her sister Kathleen offered support to new migrants seeking employment and housing in Sydney.

Sources used to compile this entry: Gleeson, Damian John, 'The Professionalisation of Australian Catholic Social Welfare, 1920-1985', PhD thesis, University of New South Wales, 2006. Also available at http://www.library.unsw.edu.au/~thesis/adt-NUN/uploads/approved
/adt-NUN20070423.123207/public/02whole.pdf.