BLAXLAND, Dame HELEN FRANCES (1907-1989), conservationist, was born on 21 June
1907 at Neutral Bay, Sydney, sixth of seven children of (Sir) Robert Anderson, a
Sydney-born businessman, and his wife Jean Cairns, née Amos, from Melbourne. Helen
was educated at Bedales School, Hampshire, England; Frensham, Mittagong, New South
Wales; and Julian Ashton’s Sydney Art School. On 8 November 1927 she married with
Presbyterian forms Gregory Hamilton Blaxland (1896-1969), an engineer, at her
parents’ home in New South Head Road, Double Bay. They lived first at Bellevue
Hill, then at Woollahra in a nineteenth-century house, Brush (named after Gregory
Blaxland’s farm). Significant patrons of mainly Sydney artists, they collected
works by (Sir) Russell Drysdale, Donald Friend, (Sir) William Dobell, Loudon
Sainthill, Elaine Haxton, Paul Jones and others. The Blaxlands’ only child,
Antonia, was born in 1929.
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Australian Dictionary of Biography Online
Helen Blaxland spent much of her life working for charitable institutions, particularly the Australian Red Cross Society, for which she was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1967. Her other interests included flower arrangement, on which she published two books. She was appointed as a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire on 14 June 1975 for service to the community in recognition of her contribution to the National Trust (New South Wales) and the Parramatta Properties Committee.
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.
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Australian Women's Register