Janet Butler, who won the NSW Premier’s History Award in 2013 for her book Kitty’s War, spoke at a public lecture at La Trobe University in Wodonga yesterday.

The honorary research associate in the university’s history program said she wanted to uncover stories from individuals involved in wars.

“There are things that individuals can tell us about war that national statistics can’t,” Dr Butler said.

“Through diaries and letters you can find out how war affected them and how Australia changed at that time.

“Nurses came home from war with an expanded idea of what they were capable of doing as women.”

Dr Butler said often we heard stories from soldiers on the front line but did not always hear from the women involved and those left behind at home.

“People whose experiences are different from the Anzac soldier are silenced,” she said.

“I could have picked any name off that monument and there would have been a story,” she said.

Kitty’s War is based on nurse Kit McNaughton, who finished the war as Australia’s first plastic surgery nurse.

Dr Butler is now writing a book about those who served in the Imperial Camel Corps.

Anybody with connections to those who served can contact Dr Butler on (03) 9479 5917 or j.butler@latrobe.edu.au.