diff --git a/include/wx/convauto.h b/include/wx/convauto.h
index 4c18dba601..25019a55e5 100644
--- a/include/wx/convauto.h
+++ b/include/wx/convauto.h
@@ -84,6 +84,9 @@ public:
     // return the BOM type of this buffer
     static wxBOM DetectBOM(const char *src, size_t srcLen);
 
+    // return the characters composing the given BOM.
+    static const char* GetBOMChars(wxBOM bomType, size_t* count);
+
     wxBOM GetBOM() const
     {
         return m_bomType;
diff --git a/interface/wx/convauto.h b/interface/wx/convauto.h
index 715d06c279..d4d3919c4d 100644
--- a/interface/wx/convauto.h
+++ b/interface/wx/convauto.h
@@ -147,6 +147,26 @@ public:
     */
     wxBOM GetBOM() const;
 
+    /**
+        Return a pointer to the characters that makes up this BOM.
+
+        The returned character count is 2, 3 or 4, or undefined if the return
+        value is NULL.
+
+        @param bom
+            A valid BOM type, i.e. not wxBOM_Unknown or wxBOM_None.
+        @param count
+            A non-@NULL pointer receiving the number of characters in this BOM.
+        @return
+            Pointer to characters composing the BOM or @NULL if BOM is unknown
+            or invalid. Notice that the returned string is not NUL-terminated
+            and may contain embedded NULs so @a count must be used to handle it
+            correctly.
+
+        @since 2.9.3
+    */
+    const char* GetBOMChars(wxBOM bom, size_t* count);
+
     /**
         Disable the use of the fall back encoding: if the input doesn't have a
         BOM and is not valid UTF-8, the conversion will fail.
diff --git a/src/common/convauto.cpp b/src/common/convauto.cpp
index 7480754bb6..3fcccd849c 100644
--- a/src/common/convauto.cpp
+++ b/src/common/convauto.cpp
@@ -31,6 +31,17 @@
 // seem to be a good idea and there is no other reasonable alternative
 wxFontEncoding wxConvAuto::ms_defaultMBEncoding = wxFONTENCODING_ISO8859_1;
 
+namespace
+{
+
+const char BOM_UTF32BE[] = { '\x00', '\x00', '\xFE', '\xFF' };
+const char BOM_UTF32LE[] = { '\xFF', '\xFE', '\x00', '\x00' };
+const char BOM_UTF16BE[] = { '\xFE', '\xFF'                 };
+const char BOM_UTF16LE[] = { '\xFF', '\xFE'                 };
+const char BOM_UTF8[]    = { '\xEF', '\xBB', '\xBF'         };
+
+} // anonymous namespace
+
 // ============================================================================
 // implementation
 // ============================================================================
@@ -44,6 +55,28 @@ void wxConvAuto::SetFallbackEncoding(wxFontEncoding enc)
     ms_defaultMBEncoding = enc;
 }
 
+/* static */
+const char* wxConvAuto::GetBOMChars(wxBOM bom, size_t* count)
+{
+    wxCHECK_MSG( count , NULL, wxS("count pointer must be provided") );
+
+    switch ( bom )
+    {
+        case wxBOM_UTF32BE: *count = WXSIZEOF(BOM_UTF32BE); return BOM_UTF32BE;
+        case wxBOM_UTF32LE: *count = WXSIZEOF(BOM_UTF32LE); return BOM_UTF32LE;
+        case wxBOM_UTF16BE: *count = WXSIZEOF(BOM_UTF16BE); return BOM_UTF16BE;
+        case wxBOM_UTF16LE: *count = WXSIZEOF(BOM_UTF16LE); return BOM_UTF16LE;
+        case wxBOM_UTF8   : *count = WXSIZEOF(BOM_UTF8   ); return BOM_UTF8;
+        case wxBOM_Unknown:
+        case wxBOM_None:
+            wxFAIL_MSG( wxS("Invalid BOM type") );
+            return NULL;
+    }
+
+    wxFAIL_MSG( wxS("Unknown BOM type") );
+    return NULL;
+}
+
 /* static */
 wxBOM wxConvAuto::DetectBOM(const char *src, size_t srcLen)
 {