The story of The Hearing Clinic UK doesn’t begin in a boardroom or a branding workshop.
It begins in the 1940s, with a young British paratrooper named Bert Stone.
As a signaller in the Parachute Regiment during the Second World War, Bert learned that sound is connection. In the heat of battle, the clarity of a message meant safety, survival, and the unbreakable bond between comrades.
When the war ended, he returned to Glasgow in search of a way to bring clarity and meaning back into people’s lives. Working at Glasgow Royal Infirmary, Bert discovered the early tools of audiology - bulky, temperamental equipment that required constant repair.
He became captivated by the idea that technology could restore something profoundly human: the ability to hear the world again.
In those early years, hearing aids were far from discreet.
Patients carried battery packs the size of backpacks, with microphones pinned to their clothing and wires running to their earpieces.
Bert became an expert at fitting, repairing, and refining these devices. He travelled throughout Scotland and Northern England, helping children in schools for the deaf access the earliest forms of amplification.
Many of those children - now in their late seventies and eighties - are looked after today by Bert’s grandson, Chris Stone.
Three generations later, the same Scottish families still trust the Stones with their hearing.
Very few clinics in the UK can claim a legacy like this.
Bert’s son, Alan, inherited his father’s engineering skill and compassion. After working with NCR, he joined Bert in their growing hearing care service. When Alan met Kathleen, the family business grew again, rooted in their shared values of kindness, detail, and genuine care.
Their children - Martin, Chris, and Jennifer -grew up surrounded by the rhythms of hearing care. They saw lives changed daily: a husband hearing his wife again, a grandfather catching his grandchild’s laughter, a mother hearing the wind in the trees.
These weren’t just adjustments.
They were transformations.
In 2012, brothers Martin and Chris – both trained audiologists – founded The Hearing Clinic UK. Their vision was ambitious:
Blend world-leading hearing technology with the craftsmanship, warmth and integrity of their family heritage.
They partnered with global innovators: Widex, Resound, Oticon, Signia, Phonak, Starkey – pioneers from Denmark, Switzerland, and America who pushed hearing science forward.
Yet the Stones remained unwavering on one principle:
Great technology means nothing without great care.
Their approach stayed deeply personal, meticulous, and patient-first – values multinational chains simply cannot replicate.
Today, The Hearing Clinic UK has grown into one of the UK’s leading independent hearing healthcare providers, with nearly 40 team members and clinics across Scotland and England.
The family dedication continues with Dominique Stone, Chris’s wife, who leads our paediatric division -beautifully echoing Bert’s early work with children 70 years earlier.
More than 50,000 patients now trust the clinic with their hearing.
Every one of them becomes part of a story nearly a century in the making.
Our heritage shapes everything we do:
Independent, clinician-led expertise
World-leading hearing technology
Old-fashioned patience and precision
Care that values people, not transactions
A lifelong commitment to every patient we serve
This is why families return decade after decade.
Why Chris now supports the very children Bert once fitted in the 1950s.
Why patients trust us not only with their ears, but with their stories, hopes, and daily lives.
Because here, hearing care isn’t just a service.
It’s a legacy.
