Green’s Dictionary of Slang

sapper n.1

[a line sung by the Parisian music-hall star Theresa, who visited London c.1866, ‘Rien est sacré pour un s–s–sapeur!’, although note Fr. cant sapeur, a judge]

a man-about-town, a ‘gay dog’.

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[UK]Referee 3 Feb. in Ware (1909) 215/1: Mr Clement-Smith, the well-known theatrical bill printer, being captured the other day by another of those evening paper sappers to whom nothing is sacred, was irreverently christened by his tormentor ‘the Bill-poster King.’.