diff --git a/include/wx/docview.h b/include/wx/docview.h
index 824e432fdc..ee7067b09d 100644
--- a/include/wx/docview.h
+++ b/include/wx/docview.h
@@ -129,6 +129,8 @@ public:
     // deletes the document if this is there are no more views.
     virtual void OnChangedViewList();
 
+    // Called from OnCloseDocument(), does nothing by default but may be
+    // overridden. Return value is ignored.
     virtual bool DeleteContents();
 
     virtual bool Draw(wxDC&);
diff --git a/interface/wx/docview.h b/interface/wx/docview.h
index 4dd49c4be8..dd5f3bcc19 100644
--- a/interface/wx/docview.h
+++ b/interface/wx/docview.h
@@ -1141,6 +1141,18 @@ public:
     */
     virtual bool DeleteAllViews();
 
+    /**
+        Virtual method called from OnCloseDocument().
+
+        This method may be overridden to perform any additional cleanup which
+        might be needed when the document is closed.
+
+        The return value of this method is currently ignored.
+
+        The default version does nothing and simply returns @true.
+     */
+    virtual bool DeleteContents();
+
     /**
         Returns a pointer to the command processor associated with this
         document.
@@ -1258,10 +1270,10 @@ public:
     /**
         This virtual function is called when the document is being closed.
 
-        The default implementation calls DeleteContents() (an empty
-        implementation) and sets the modified flag to @false. You can override
-        it to supply additional behaviour when the document is closed with
-        Close().
+        The default implementation calls DeleteContents() (which may be
+        overridden to perform additional cleanup) and sets the modified flag to
+        @false. You can override it to supply additional behaviour when the
+        document is closed with Close().
 
         Notice that previous wxWidgets versions used to call this function also
         from OnNewDocument(), rather counter-intuitively. This is no longer the
diff --git a/src/common/docview.cpp b/src/common/docview.cpp
index 04b6bb9818..03d455b528 100644
--- a/src/common/docview.cpp
+++ b/src/common/docview.cpp
@@ -135,8 +135,6 @@ bool wxDocument::DeleteContents()
 
 wxDocument::~wxDocument()
 {
-    DeleteContents();
-
     delete m_commandProcessor;
 
     if (GetDocumentManager())