During World War I, Helps joined the Artists' Rifles and saw active service in France.
Helps joined the 1924 British Mount Everest expedition as an official artist.
He completed some eighty paintings and drawings of the expedition members and the Himalayan landscape which were subsequently displayed at the Alpine Club in London.
[3] He left the RCA in 1934 but rejoined their teaching staff during World War II while the college was relocated to the Lake District.
In 1953, Helps became head of the painting at the Leeds College of Art, a post he held until his retirement.