diff --git a/VERSION.txt b/VERSION.txt
index f9d5d7c8678..83aceb72ca3 100644
--- a/VERSION.txt
+++ b/VERSION.txt
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 jetty-7.4.1-SNAPSHOT
+ + JETTY-954 WebAppContext eats any start exceptions instead of stopping the server load
  + 343083 Set nested dispatch type and connection
  + 343277 add support for a context white list
  + 343352 make sure that jetty.osgi.boot is activated when a WAB is registered
diff --git a/jetty-server/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/server/Server.java b/jetty-server/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/server/Server.java
index 9bf0eb234a2..adee6829f3e 100644
--- a/jetty-server/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/server/Server.java
+++ b/jetty-server/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/server/Server.java
@@ -233,7 +233,9 @@ public class Server extends HandlerWrapper implements Attributes
     {
         _dumpBeforeStop = dumpBeforeStop;
     }
-
+    
+    
+  
     /* ------------------------------------------------------------ */
     @Override
     protected void doStart() throws Exception
@@ -254,7 +256,7 @@ public class Server extends HandlerWrapper implements Attributes
         } 
         catch(Throwable e) 
         { 
-            Log.warn("Error starting handlers",e);
+            mex.add(e);
         }
         
         if (_connectors!=null)
diff --git a/jetty-webapp/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/webapp/WebAppContext.java b/jetty-webapp/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/webapp/WebAppContext.java
index c4e2f9d5feb..e5cbf7c037a 100644
--- a/jetty-webapp/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/webapp/WebAppContext.java
+++ b/jetty-webapp/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/webapp/WebAppContext.java
@@ -143,6 +143,7 @@ public class WebAppContext extends ServletContextHandler implements WebAppClassL
     private boolean _configurationClassesSet=false;
     private boolean _configurationsSet=false;
     private boolean _allowDuplicateFragmentNames = false;
+    private boolean _throwUnavailableOnStartupException = false;
     
   
     private MetaData _metadata=new MetaData();
@@ -448,6 +449,8 @@ public class WebAppContext extends ServletContextHandler implements WebAppClassL
             Log.warn("Failed startup of context "+this, e);
             _unavailableException=e;
             setAvailable(false);
+            if (isThrowUnavailableOnStartupException())
+                throw e;
         }
     }
     
@@ -1161,6 +1164,17 @@ public class WebAppContext extends ServletContextHandler implements WebAppClassL
         _allowDuplicateFragmentNames = allowDuplicateFragmentNames;
     }
 
+    
+    /* ------------------------------------------------------------ */
+    public void setThrowUnavailableOnStartupException (boolean throwIfStartupException) {
+        _throwUnavailableOnStartupException = throwIfStartupException;
+    }
+    
+    
+    public boolean isThrowUnavailableOnStartupException () {
+        return _throwUnavailableOnStartupException;
+    }
+    
 
     /* ------------------------------------------------------------ */
     @Override