Families and charities across Britain will mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee by undertaking an hour of voluntary work in recognition of Her Majesty’s six decades of service.

The Jubilee Hour encourages participants to give 60 minutes of their time to charitable work.

The project is the brainchild of David Altschuler, the co-founder of the One to One Children’s Fund, which helps young people affected by conflict, political upheaval and disease.

Jubilee Hour participants can create an online profile for individuals, charities, clubs or other organisations and pledge to carry out an act of goodwill or good deeds for an hour at any time during Jubilee year.

Mr Altschuler, who grew up in South Africa, said: “With British parents, and South Africa being a member of the Commonwealth, the Queen and monarchy were an important part of my life. One of my earliest childhood memories was the excitement of the Coronation and images of the cheering crowds on Pathé News.”

He based the idea on a United Nations initiative to celebrate Nelson Mandela’s birthday by carrying out 67 minutes of charitable work, one for each year of his captivity and subsequent national service.

“I thought how wonderful it would be to offer a similar opportunity here, to honour and thank our Queen for every year of her own exceptional service to our country and the Commonwealth,” said Mr Altschuler.