Alfred Messenger was one of 12 members of the Birmingham & District Gymnastics Association that helped Great Britain win the team bronze medal at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics. He was a member of the Aston Church Gymnastics Club and gave a wonderful performance on the parallel bars to help Aston gain an impressive win over the Birmingham YMCA in the 1910 Birmingham and District Team Championship. Two years later, he went to the Olympics as the overall individual Birmingham champion.
Messenger appeared in three successive Adams Shield finals for the British Team Championship. He was a member of the Birmingham City team that lost to the Northampton Polytechnic Institute (NPI) in 1912 and 1913 but was on the winning side in 1914 as Birmingham turned the tables on NPI. During World War I Messenger served as a corporal in the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry.
Great Britain