Fanny Adams in Alton, Hampshire

The grave of Fanny Adams is in Alton Cemetery, Hampshire.

'SACRED
TO THE MEMORY OF
FANNY ADAMS
AGED 8 YEARS AND 4 MONTHS,
WHO WAS CRUELLY MURDERED
ON SATURDAY AUGST. 24TH. 1867.
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FEAR NOT THEM WHICH KILL THE BODY BUT
ARE NOT ABLE TO KILL THE SOUL BUT RATHER
FEAR HIM WHICH IS ABLE TO DESTROY BOTH
SOUL AND BODY AND HELL. Matthew 10 V 28
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THIS STONE WAS ERECTED BY VOLUNTARY SUBSCRIPTION'

Fanny Adams (1859–1867) was murdered on 24 August 1867 by solicitor's clerk Frederick Baker at the age of eight years and four months. Her head and legs had been severed and her eyes gouged out. Although there was a history of mental illness in Baker's family, including himself, Baker was hanged outside Winchester prison on 24 December 1867.

The expression 'Fanny Adams' was adopted by sailors discontented with their rations to mean meat of no worth. By extension, 'sweet FA' has come to be a euphemism for something of no value, in other words 'fuck all'.

ADDENDUM: Very oddly, there's a French expression 'faire Fanny', which some sources say comes from the 19th century too, when a twenty-year-old called Fanny from the Croix-Rousse region of Lyon used to console players scoring 'nul points' at pétanque (or boules) by taking them aside and showing them her arse. Some, of course, might see this as an insult, and other stories take it as exactly that. And then, there's an expression called 'embrasser Fanny', when 'Fanny' kissed the losers, although this expression is said to originate from different eastern areas of France. It seems an odd coincidence that 'Fanny' is used to mean zero in both France and England and in such unrelated circumstances, but now how did the American 'Fanny' (in the sense of 'ass' meaning 'arse' or, er, posterior), come into being, and apparently have no relationship with the young French girl(s)? Weird.