Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also Salvation Sally) a female Salvation Army member.

1883		Sydney Morn. Herald 29 May 4/4: The work of the Salvationists is now principally confined to their own meeting places, and though the big drum is occasionally beaten in the streets and Salvation Sallys caper before it, tambourine in hand [...] the larger towns have been spared these revolting spectacles of religious excitement.
1885		Western Dly Press 20 Aug. 3/7: Houp-la! Here be ‘nuts’ for Aunt ‘Sally’!
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 16 May 12/3: Two Salvation Sallys were trotted out at Wanganui (N.Z.), recently, at the head of the local contingent, dressed in a style which gave old Nick spasms to such an extent that he incited a member of the ‘foorce’ to run them in on a charge of lunacy or something.
1963		L.F. Freed Crime in S. Afr. 106: A ‘Sally’ is a Salvation Army lass.

2. (Aus./US/UK, also Sallie) constr. with the, a Salvation Army hostel.

1930		‘Dean Stiff’ Milk and Honey Route 213: Sallies – Salvation Army hotels and industrial workshops.
1935		N. Algren ‘If You Must Use Profanity’ in Texas Stories (1995) 47: Once hit a boy [...] so hard he ruptured him and the boy died in the Sallie uptown an hour after.
1937		J. Curtis You’re in the Racket, Too 218: I bin kipping at the Sally in Lisson Grove.
1988		J. Healy Grass Arena (1990) 151: She gave me £2 to book a bed for the night in the Sally.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 41: He reached the Salvation Army [...] in ten minutes. The Sally was Rooski’s second home away from the home he never had.

3. (US prison) a homosexual prostitute.

1912

A. Berkman Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist (1926) 433: My friend is very bitter against the prison element variously known as ‘the girls,’ ‘Sallies,’ and ‘punks,’ who for gain traffic in sexual gratification.

4. (Aus./US/UK, also Sal, Sally’s, Sallies) the Salvation Army.

1915		Morn. Tulsa Dly World (OK) 13 June 19/3: Sally — Nickname for Salvation Army.
1920		(con. WW1) Coffs Harbour Advocate 29 May 2/6: The ‘Sallies,’ however, played the game with our lads in the fighting line; they were ready with a hot cup of coffee, and didn’t turn a man down if he hadn’t the cash to pay for it.
1929		V.W. Saul ‘Vocab. of Bums’ in AS IV:5 344: Sal or Sally—The Salvation Army.
1930		‘Dean Stiff’ Milk and Honey Route 52: The mother superior of all missions is the Salvation Army, more intimately known in Hobohemia as ‘The Sally’.
1931		Mudgee Guardian (NSW) 24 Sept. 3/6: There is no doubt that the ‘Sallies,’ as they are affectionately known, do wonderful work.
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 163: Sal.–The Salvation Army.
1934		T. Minehan Boy and Girl Tramps of America (1976) 152: You never saw a fat guy eating at Sally’s.
1936		I.L. Idriess Cattle King 189: The surest place to find Sid Kidman [...] was among the crowd around the ‘Sallies’.
1941		K. Tennant Battlers 175: I’d sooner get a bullet in me than doss with the Sallies again.
1957		D. Niland Call Me When the Cross Turns Over (1958) 31: She used to be some sort of a high-up with the Sallies down in Sydney.
1967		Ottowa Citizen (Ontario, Can.) 9 Dec. 63/4: Stay clear of the Sally / They’ll bug you to death.
1974		(con. 1930s) I. Agnew Loner 39: Standing by and laughing with the rest of them, I still could not but admire the Sallies.

5. see Aunt Sally n. (1)