The BLRC organised Tours of Britain under different names and sponsors and in 1958 secured sponsorship from the Milk Marketing Board.
Messenger was the BLRC's event organiser and he and other officials visited the board at a hotel in central London.
[8] Messenger wrote several books in a style described as "intensely personal" and in which his "grasp of history doesn't always follow a chronological pattern", "but he's always an entertaining and exciting writer who never allows himself to worry unduly about such obstacles as spelling, grammar, punctuation.
He was a member of the Chequers Road Club and an official of the British Cycling Federation's west London division.
An obituary by British Cycling[10] said: "His propensity for direct action and getting things done rather than long-winded committee debate made him a controversial figure to some then amateur attitudes.