Gill was born to Fred and Elsie Gill and attended Harrogate Grammar School in Harrogate, North Yorkshire.
Gill studied at the Methodist training college Hartley Victoria College, Manchester, and was ordained a deacon in the Church of South India Diocese of Mysore in 1958 and a presbyter in 1960 – that church is a united church comprising (among others) Methodists and Anglicans.
In 1972, Gill was consecrated bishop of the Diocese of Central Karnataka of the Church of South India,[1] where he served until 1980, when he returned to the United Kingdom.
In the Church of England, he became the first full-time ("stipendiary") Assistant Bishop of Newcastle until his 1998 retirement.
He retired to Edinburgh and was licensed as an honorary assistant bishop in Newcastle diocese.