diff --git a/phpBB/docs/CHANGELOG.html b/phpBB/docs/CHANGELOG.html
index 1ddee3b573..f12b58885f 100644
--- a/phpBB/docs/CHANGELOG.html
+++ b/phpBB/docs/CHANGELOG.html
@@ -146,6 +146,7 @@
 		<li>[Fix] Correctly hover list menu in UCP and MCP for rtl languages. (Bug #49945)</li>
 		<li>[Fix] Correctly orientate quoted text image on RTL languages. (Bug #33745)</li>
 		<li>[Fix] Deprecate $allow_reply parameter to truncate_string() (Bug #56675)</li>
+		<li>[Fix] Fall back to default language email template if specified file does not exist. (Bug #35595)</li>
 		<li>[Fix] Update users last visit field correctly when changing activation status. (Bug #56185)</li>
 		<li>[Fix] Database updater now separates ADD COLUMN from SET NOT NULL and SET DEFAULT, when using PostgreSQL &lt;= 7.4 (Bug #54435)</li>
 		<li>[Change] Move redirect into a hidden field to avoid issues with mod_security. (Bug #54145)</li>
diff --git a/phpBB/includes/functions_messenger.php b/phpBB/includes/functions_messenger.php
index 8f4e582b3c..85f5f091a0 100644
--- a/phpBB/includes/functions_messenger.php
+++ b/phpBB/includes/functions_messenger.php
@@ -182,9 +182,15 @@ class messenger
 			trigger_error('No template file for emailing set.', E_USER_ERROR);
 		}
 
-		if (!trim($template_lang))
+		if (!trim($template_lang) || !file_exists("{$phpbb_root_path}language/{$template_lang}/email/$template_file.txt"))
 		{
-			$template_lang = basename($config['default_lang']);
+			if (file_exists("{$phpbb_root_path}language/{$config['default_lang']}/email/$template_file.txt"))
+			{
+				// fall back to board default language if the user's language is
+				// missing $template_file
+				$template_lang = basename($config['default_lang']);
+			}
+			// Else $tpl->set_custom_template will do a trigger error
 		}
 
 		// tpl_msg now holds a template object we can use to parse the template file