Her father worked as an engineer, and during her secondary school years, the family moved to Hobart, Tasmania, because of a change in his employment.
After graduating from the Hobart high school, she attended the University of Tasmania, where she earned a bachelor of arts in 1932 and a master's degree in 1934.
[1] Lilian Wells spent three years working as a teacher at the Methodist Ladies' College in Melbourne, where she gave instruction in French and German.
As the wife of a minister, she took on significant volunteer roles in the congregations he served, such as teaching Sunday school and participating in the local women's guilds.
Over time her participation in the Congregational Women's Fellowship grew from local involvement into holding a regional and then national role.
These were dynamic years to be in leadership, as the Congregationalists were in dialogue with Presbyterians and Methodists over a proposed merger that eventually led to the creation of the Uniting Church in Australia.
[2] Wells served on the joint planning committee for the merger, and was influential in shaping the new denomination,[1] which was officially formed in June 1977.
[2][4] At that gathering, she was confirmed as the moderator of the New South Wales Synod of the Uniting Church in Australia, a position she had held in an interim capacity as the new denomination was formed.