Jocelyn Fish

Fish was born Jocelyn Barbara Green, the daughter of Edna and John Green, at Whangārei on 29 September 1930.[1] She was educated at Whangarei High School and Hamilton High School, and went of to study at Auckland University College, graduating Bachelor of Arts in 1952.[1][2][3] She trained as a secondary school teacher, and taught at Fairfield College until her marriage to Robert John Malthus Fish, a farmer, in 1959.[1][2] The couple would go on to have three children.[1]

In 1980, Jocelyn Fish was elected as a Piako County councillor, the first woman in that role, and served until 1989.[2] She was national president of the National Council of Women from 1986 to 1990, and served as a member of the Film and Literature Board of Review between 1981 and 1984.[2] She was a member of the New Zealand national commission of UNESCO between 1989 and 1995, and was one of a group of women who lobbied for 1993 to be recognised as Women's Suffrage Year in New Zealand.[2]

In 1990, Fish received the New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal.[1] The following year, in the 1991 Queen's Birthday Honours, she was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, for services to the community,[4] and in 1993 she was awarded the New Zealand Suffrage Centennial Medal.[5] In the 2001 New Year Honours, Fish was appointed a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to women and the community,[6] and in 2009, following the restoration of titular honours by the New Zealand government, she accepted redesignation as a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit.[7]