1911 'Safety Cut'

[1911Tuner]

I may be wrong, but

The thumb safety was added as a final modification to the original on request by the US Cavalry...which had the grip safety in place.

And...

John Browning died 9 years before the High Power was finished, so he couldn't have designed it. He designed the Grande Rendement, which Diudonne Saive used as the springboard to finish the High Power.

It didn't have a grip safety because the military entity that it was designed for didn't request one. If they had, the High Power would have had one.

Here's a photo of one of only two original 1910 Models in existence...sans thumb safety.

Photo courtesy of Charles W. Clawson

 

[bigfatdave]

Unless my memory is failing (and as I get older, I find that happening occasionally ) the original design of the 1911 did not have a grip safety.

Define "original design" ... there very well may have been a version without the grip interlock at some point, and there have been versions since with it disabled or left out (Detonics comes to mind).
But how many OTHER 100-year-old military sidearms continue to be produced, carried, and supported by multiple manufacturers? I submit that one feature that keeps the 1911 and descendants going is the grip safety, and variants without the manual/grip combination are unlikely to gain traction in the market, because the original safety setup was correct for a skilled user and remains correct for a skilled user.

 

[1911Tuner]

there very well may have been a version without the grip interlock at some point, and there have been versions since with it disabled or left out

The grip safety was actually present as early as the 1907 on the contract models as an add-on, and fully incorporated into the 1908 and 1909 models. When the US Army contracted Colt for a new pistol...and they in turn hired Browning to assist with the project...they asked for a grip safety because they saw it on the Lugers and liked the idea. The request for the "Manual, slide locking safety...aka "Thumb Safety" came later, at the behest of the US Cavalry. There was concern over mounted troopers having a need to jam a loaded, cocked pistol into a holster in order to regain control over a frightened, unruly horse and possibly/probably forgetting to take their fingers out of the trigger guards.

Browning's intent...if there truly was one...was to employ the half-cock as a manual safety. When the thumb safety was added, it pretty much negated the use of the half-cock as a safe position...and people have been arguing about it ever since.

 

[bigfatdave]

and people have been arguing about it ever since.

No they haven't! If JMB wanted them to argue he would have designed in an arguer!