Robert Doyne, Founder of the Oxford Congress, was born in 1857 and came to Oxford in 1886. Having discovered the need for ophthalmic specialization and integrated facilities in the Oxford area, Doyne established an independent Eye Hospital and also commenced what was to become a constant flow of original medical papers and contributions. The specialized work started as an Eye Dispensary in a builder's yard. In spite of many difficulties and with the help of influential friends Doyne founded the Oxford Eye Hospital in 1886 by moving the dispensary to 21-22 Wellington Square (now the site of the University Chest). Almost exactly 100 years ago, in 1894 the Eye Hospital Committee obtained a lease from the County Hospital and Ophthalmology came to its present site in Walton Street, in the fever block of the Radcliffe Infirmary.

In 1902 Doyne was made an honorary M.A. of the University of Oxford and was appointed Senior Surgeon to the Oxford Eye Hospital, Consulting Ophthalmic Surgeon to the Radcliffe Infirmary, and to the new post of Reader in Ophthalmology to the University - a chair instituted by the munificence of Mrs. Margaret Ogilvie - which he was to hold for 11 years. He resigned from the Oxford Eye Hospital in 1912, after 25 years' continuous service. Although after retirement Doyne moved to London, he died in Oxford following a stroke in 1916.

Doyne presided the section of Ophthalmology of the B.M.A. meeting which was held in Oxford in 1904. This meeting was such a success that he was asked to arrange a similar meeting the next year and this was repeated annually. As a result of this the Oxford Congress was founded in 1909 which is still an important annual event.

Doyne wrote over 87 papers and made a similar number of presentations in his clinical lifetime. He remains internationally recognised through the inherited retinal condition Doyne's Dominant Drusen. At the Eye Hospital there is a ward, together with a plaque and bust, in his memory as well as the collection of his hospital notes and instruments.