The Queen soon came to regard her young daughter-in-law with great respect and affection, notwithstanding her initial concerns upon hearing from the match-making Vicky that Helen was an 'intellectual', being unusually well-educated for a princess.

Before her marriage, Helen's father had made her superintendent of the infant schools in his principality, and in this position the Princess had devised the pupils' educational curriculum.

Helen particularly enjoyed solving mathematical problems and reading philosophy: during their tragically brief marriage, Prince Leopold proudly introduced his wife to the circle of academics he had befriended at Oxford University.

After the death of her nephew, the Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1899, Helen's sixteen-year-old son was selected as the new heir to the German duchy, and was parted from his mother and sister in order to take up residence there.

By contrast, Helen's daughter Alice remained in England and by marriage to Prince Alexander of Teck in 1904 became a sister-in-law of Queen Mary.

Helen died on 1 September 1922 of a heart attack in Hinterriss in Tyrol, Austria, while visiting her beloved son, Charles Edward.