The Leslie Payne Memorial Lecture

The Faculty of Conflict & Catastrophe Medicine owes its existence to Dr Leslie Payne who died in 2018. He helped establish the Diploma in the Medical Care of Catastrophes (DMCC), which continues to be taught and examined at the Society of Apothecaries.

From the early 1970s, Leslie laboured long and hard as the Ballistic and Blast Archivist to the Department of Military Surgery at RAMC College Millbank. This unpaid work was carried out in addition to managing his busy dental practice. At the same time, he was discretely advising security agencies in the UK. His areas of particular interest and expertise included blast biophysics and pathophysiology, and penetrating civilian and military ballistic injury.

Leslie was also a noted expert on stab injury and unarmed combat and worked closely with the London Metropolitan Police and the Association of Chief Police Officers of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland in these areas.