Helen Blaxland was the daughter of the late Brigadier General Sir R M McCheyne Anderson. She was educated at Bedales in England and later at Frensham in Mittagong, New South Wales. She married Gregory Blaxland on 10 November 1927, and had one daughter, Antonia, who became a photographer.

She worked in several charitable organisations, including the Australian Red Cross Society. She was appointed OBE in 1967 for her contribution to the Society and awarded the Order of the Red Cross Society in the same year. She was foundation chairman of the Women's Committee of the National Trust (New South Wales), the Lindesay Committee and the Parramatta Properties Committee, which was concerned with the restoration of Experiment Farm Cottage and Old Government House, Paramatta.

She published two books on flower arrangement, entitled Flower pieces (1946) and Collected Flower pieces: on the arrangement of flowers (1949), for which her daughter Antonia took the photos.

Sources used to compile this entry: 'Blaxland, Dame Helen Frances, DBE', in Keith A Cadman (ed.), Who's who in Australia 1988, 25th edn, 1988, p. 123.