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Sweet Fanny Adams: Forgotten Victim of a Gruesome Victorian Murder
How a Girl Went from Murder Victim to Navy Slang
You may have heard the slang expression “sweet Fanny Adams” or “sweet F.A.” Few know it originated from a gruesome murder of a little girl in the town of Alton in the coastal county of Hampshire, England.
Alton is part of “Jane Austen country.” It’s near Chawton, the village where Jane Austen lived and wrote her books. Not the sort of place you would associate with a notorious murder.
Content Warning: This article refers to the gruesome and violent murder of a young child.
Who Was Fanny Adams?
Fanny Adams was just eight years old when she was murdered. According to an account on the Hampshire Genealogical Society site by a modern-day distant relative, Fanny seemed tall for her age and was “of a lively and cheerful disposition.”
Fanny lived on Tanhouse Lane with her bricklayer father George; her mother Harriet; and five siblings. It’s believed that her grandparents lived right next door. Tanhouse Lane was close to a hop garden as well as woods, meadows, and the River Wey.
Alton has a long history. The First Battle of Alton dates back to 1001. By Victorian times, the town was a stranger to such violence. Parents saw no danger in letting their children could play on their own.
The Fateful Day
Because this happened so long ago, the accounts don’t always agree, but the basic facts are the same. In the afternoon of Saturday, August 24th, 1867, Fanny was playing with her seven-year-old sister Lizzie and friend Minnie Warner in a hop garden, which grew hops used by breweries in the area.
Then, a 29-year-old man named Frederick Baker approached them and gave them coins. Baker, who worked as a clerk for a solicitor in Alton, was dressed respectably. According to at least one report, the children knew him from church, so they weren’t worried about a strange giving them money.
Baker gave Lizzie and Minnie more coins and told them to go buy sweets, and then he gave Fanny a coin to walk to a nearby village with him. When she refused, he picked her up and carried her off. The other girls heard Fanny crying out.
