Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. the Salvation Army.

1901		Truth (Sydney) 3 Nov. 7/3: We’ll join the ‘Sally’ Army / And bang old Booth’s big drum.
1921		N.Y. Times 18 Dec. 85: The Salvation Army will have its three homelike stations, with ‘Sally Ann’s’ morning cup of coffee, decorated and made gay with Christmas greens, and will hold services with Christmas music.
1927		Morn. Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld) 3 Mar. 5/1: Demonstrate publicly, same as the Sally Army. Let me get on a box at the corner of East-street and I’ll [...] collect 100 people.
1936		Mencken Amer. Lang. (4th edn) 582: A Catholic priest is a buck or Galway, and the Salvation Army is Sally Ann.
1942		Western Star Toowoomba, Qld1/4: A veteran returned from Flanders offered a London War Cry seller a tanner for that Sally Army cup o’ tea.
1958		(con. 1940s) B. Behan Borstal Boy 192: The Sally Army’s got damn-all to do with us R.C.s.
1976		(con. 1930s) J. Wolveridge Ain’t it Grand 67: A mobile canteen from the Sally Army [...] was distributing food.
1977		D. Powis Signs of Crime 199: Sally (Ann) The Salvation Army. Used also to refer to the common lodging houses managed by this organisation.
1980		Barltrop & Wolveridge Muvver Tongue 65: Another skipping rhyme was ‘Salvation Army, all gone barmy, / All gone to heaven in a corned beef tin.’ As often as not, the beginning was altered to ‘Sally Sally Army’.
1988		J. Milne Daddy’s Girl (1999) 132: The Sally Ann couldn’t find him.
1991		O.D. Brooks Legs 2: There ain’t nuthin’ there ’cept cops and the Sally Ann.
2007		Camden New Journal (London) XI: The Sally Ann’s commanding officer in Camden assures me the ambiance will be party-like.

2. attrib. use of sense 1.

2002		(con. 1910s) M. McGrath Silvertown 26: No Fulcher child has ever had to dip for a living, and not a drop of Sally Army soup has passed Fulcher lips.
1967		Ottowa Citizen (Ontario, Can.) 9 Dec. 63/4: If you’re headed east [...] talk to the Sally Ann major; he’ll put you on a frieght.

3. (Aus.) a female Salvation Army member.

1986

R. Beckett Dinkum Aussie Dict. 44: A female Salvationist is sometimes called a Sally Anne.