Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(orig. Royal Navy) tinned mutton.

1889–90		Barrère & Leland Dict. of Sl., Jargon and Cant.
1899		Hants. Teleg. 20 May 12/3: Lower Deck Slang [...] Preserved meat is ‘Fanny Adams’.
1908		H. Green Maison De Shine 3: They had nothin’ better’n an old bum tiger from Injy [...] an’ callin it ‘Fanny Adams’.
1912		N.Z. Colonist 12 Dec. 2/5: The food of the sailor [...] ‘Fanny Adams’.
1914		‘Bartimeus’ ‘The Greater Love’ in Naval Occasions 216: Fresh grub to-night: no more ‘Russian Kromeskis’ and ‘Fanny Adams’!
1925		(con. WWI) Fraser & Gibbons Soldier and Sailor Words 92: Fanny Adams: Tinned boiled mutton. Fanny Adams [...] was in real life a young woman, murdered by a solicitor’s clerk named Baker a hundred years ago (circ. 1812) who cut her up and flung the pieces into the river at Alton in Hampshire. Seamen of the period applied the name ‘Fanny Adams’ by way of grim jest to the pieces of salt-junk or pork supplied as rations. Later, when tinned meat became a naval ration, the name was transferred to that.
1930		G. Aylmer Wells Naval Customs and Traditions 56: FANNY ADAMS A name given to tinned meat in the Royal Navy.
1936		(ref. to 1867) Western Mail (Perth) 17 Dec. 2/5: The issue of tinned meat coincided with the murder of a child named Fanny Adams whose body was cut up. From that day the Navy has called tinned meat ‘Fanny Adams’.
1950		Western Dly Press 27 Feb. 6/5: ‘Fanny Adams’ (Naval) tinned mutton.
1962		W. Granville Sailors’ Sl. 46/1: Fanny Adams, general nautical slang for stew or hash.