diff --git a/docs/changes.txt b/docs/changes.txt
index 7344aa92e3..182b570990 100644
--- a/docs/changes.txt
+++ b/docs/changes.txt
@@ -447,6 +447,7 @@ All (GUI):
 - Fix keyboard navigation in wxGrid with hidden columns (ivan_14_32).
 - Add wxDataViewEvent::IsEditCancelled() (Allonii).
 - Allow marking wxTreeBook nodes to expand initially in XRC (RedTide).
+- Added customizable wxDocManager::OnMRUFileNotExist() virtual method.
 
 OSX:
 
diff --git a/include/wx/docview.h b/include/wx/docview.h
index a6efd5dd10..502a714446 100644
--- a/include/wx/docview.h
+++ b/include/wx/docview.h
@@ -510,6 +510,11 @@ public:
 
 
 protected:
+    // Called when a file selected from the MRU list doesn't exist any more.
+    // The default behaviour is to remove the file from the MRU and notify the
+    // user about it but this method can be overridden to customize it.
+    virtual void OnMRUFileNotExist(unsigned n, const wxString& filename);
+
     // Open the MRU file with the given index in our associated file history.
     void DoOpenMRUFile(unsigned n);
 #if wxUSE_PRINTING_ARCHITECTURE
diff --git a/interface/wx/docview.h b/interface/wx/docview.h
index 1b2c9f9788..5d5f2662dc 100644
--- a/interface/wx/docview.h
+++ b/interface/wx/docview.h
@@ -749,6 +749,36 @@ public:
 
 
 protected:
+    /**
+        Called when a file selected from the MRU list doesn't exist any more.
+
+        The default behaviour is to remove the file from the MRU (most recently
+        used) files list and the corresponding menu and notify the user about
+        it but this method can be overridden to customize it.
+
+        For example, an application may want to just give an error about the
+        missing file @a filename but not remove it from the file history. Or it
+        could ask the user whether the file should be kept or removed.
+
+        Notice that this method is called only if the file selected by user
+        from the MRU files in the menu doesn't exist, but not if opening it
+        failed for any other reason because in the latter case the default
+        behaviour of removing the file from the MRU list is inappropriate.
+        If you still want to do it, you would need to do it by calling
+        RemoveFileFromHistory() explicitly in the part of the file opening code
+        that may fail.
+
+        @since 2.9.3
+
+        @param n
+            The index of the file in the MRU list, it can be passed to
+            RemoveFileFromHistory() to remove this file from the list.
+        @param filename
+            The full name of the file.
+     */
+    virtual void OnMRUFileNotExist(unsigned n, const wxString& filename);
+
+
     /**
         The currently active view.
     */
diff --git a/src/common/docview.cpp b/src/common/docview.cpp
index 6d6950b008..e4f6bf3bdb 100644
--- a/src/common/docview.cpp
+++ b/src/common/docview.cpp
@@ -1153,26 +1153,27 @@ void wxDocManager::DoOpenMRUFile(unsigned n)
     wxString errMsg; // must contain exactly one "%s" if non-empty
     if ( wxFile::Exists(filename) )
     {
-        // try to open it
-        if ( CreateDocument(filename, wxDOC_SILENT) )
-            return;
-
-        errMsg = _("The file '%s' couldn't be opened.");
+        // Try to open it but don't give an error if it failed: this could be
+        // normal, e.g. because the user cancelled opening it, and we don't
+        // have any useful information to put in the error message anyhow, so
+        // we assume that in case of an error the appropriate message had been
+        // already logged.
+        (void)CreateDocument(filename, wxDOC_SILENT);
     }
     else // file doesn't exist
     {
-        errMsg = _("The file '%s' doesn't exist and couldn't be opened.");
+        OnMRUFileNotExist(n, filename);
     }
+}
 
-
-    wxASSERT_MSG( !errMsg.empty(), "should have an error message" );
-
+void wxDocManager::OnMRUFileNotExist(unsigned n, const wxString& filename)
+{
     // remove the file which we can't open from the MRU list
     RemoveFileFromHistory(n);
 
     // and tell the user about it
-    wxLogError(errMsg + '\n' +
-               _("It has been removed from the most recently used files list."),
+    wxLogError(_("The file '%s' doesn't exist and couldn't be opened.\n"
+                 "It has been removed from the most recently used files list."),
                filename);
 }