A Liverpool man, Doyle attended its College of Art – being particularly influenced by the Head of Painting, Will C Penn. By a pleasing coincidence, his son Arthur Penn first aroused my own interest in Victorian stained glass, which he was surveying around Brampton, Cumbria where we had our own first gallery. Gaining a scholarship to the Royal College of Art to study book illustration, Doyle became captivated by stained glass and his life’s work shows what a good choice he made. In 1935 he gained his Diploma in Design and was three times winner of the Annual Competition of the Worshipful Company of Glaziers.
As assistant to Martin Travers, Doyle gained much experience which led to establishing his own studio in Liverpool important commissions followed including several armorial designs for Trinity College, Cambridge and the memorial window after the Golborne colliery disaster. In later years he lived in Llandudno, North Wales. A keen member of the British Society of Master Painters in Stained Glass, he made frequent visits to London to enjoy their events.
This text is based upon his obituary by Penny Somerville and Alfred Fisher, in the Journal of Stained Glass, Volume XXV 2001, pp 192 – 195.