Born in the Auckland suburb of Devonport on 26 August 1927, Amos was the daughter of Charles Edwin Ross Turner and Lucy Caroline Turner (née Mansfield).[1][2] She married Phil Amos in 1949, and the couple, both schoolteachers, taught in various isolated New Zealand communities.[3] They had two sons, and an adopted daughter.[4] Phil Amos was a Member of Parliament from 1963 to 1975, and served as a cabinet minister in the third Labour government (1972–1975).[3] In 1977, Jill and Phil Amos went to Tanzania to teach, but Jill Amos returned to New Zealand the following year and the couple divorced.[3] Before she left Tanzania she nominated for the Labour candidacy for the electorate of Papatoetoe. She posted a cassette tape which was played at the selection meeting in her stead. She was unsuccessful in her bid for the nomination.[5]
Jill Amos was appointed as a justice of the peace in 1980,[6] and served as the president of the Citizens Association for Racial Equality between 1980 and 1981.[7] A long-time Labour Party member, she went on to be elected as a Manukau City Councillor (1974–77; 1980–90) and an Auckland Regional Councillor (1980–83). She was one of the founders of the New Zealand AIDS Foundation, and during the 1994 South African election she was a United Nations observer.[6][8]
She was in favour of homosexual law reform in New Zealand and listed her name openly in support.[9]
Amos was awarded the New Zealand Suffrage Centennial Medal in 1993.[6] In the 2001 New Year Honours, she was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to the community.[10]
Amos died at home in Katikati on 19 April 2017, aged 89. She was survived by two of her three children.[11]
