Introduction

Father Eamonn Mansfield arrived in Mauritius in the early 60's to teach Physics, Maths and Cateshism at the Saint Esprit College in Quatre Bornes.

In 1967, he founded an astronomy club and began to initiate a large number of his pupils and some of their parents, to astronomy.

In the mid 70's, he organized "O" Level Astronomy tuitions until he was asked for more responsibilities in the Roman Catholic Education Authority.

During the 80's, he founded new clubs at the Queen Elizabeth College and the Port Louis Loreto Convent respectively, while giving conferences at the Touessrok Hotel for the tourists.

In 1988, with the help of some of his former students from Saint Esprit and Queen Elizabeth Colleges, he founded the Mauritius Astronomical Society, whose meetings are held, as from the start and until nowadays,  the last Friday of each month at 7:30 pm, in the same College where he initiated his first amateur-astronomers.

He died in his natal country, Ireland, and his ashes were transfered to Sainte Croix in Port Louis, according to his last wishes..

B. Desai & F.M. Robert