George Insole (baptised 5 December 1790 – 1 January 1851) was an English entrepreneur who built an extensive coal mining and shipping business in South Wales.

[1][2][3][4][5] The Insole & Biddle day book for 1830 records a shipment of 414 tons of Waun Wyllt steam coal to London.

[6] The shipment did not make a profit but the quality of the coal eventually made it very popular for both household and Royal Navy use.

... it was Insole who, in the 'thirties and 'forties of the last [19th] century, for the first time exported steam coal from Cardiff to London, to scattered overseas markets from Malta to Alexandria, and who supplied the British Admiralty.

[1][6][19] In 1844, as the Maesmawr seam was becoming depleted, they leased and revived collieries at Cymmer and in 1848 opened 36 coking ovens to supply the Taff Vale Railway Company, of which Insole was a principal promoter.

Insole continued to develop his international trade and afterwards supplied markets in France, the Mediterranean, Southeast Asia and South America and became the largest shipper of steam coal at Cardiff.

[1][23][24][25] Mr Insole was an enterprising and extensive coal proprietor; and was mainly instrumental in developing the resources of one of the most important mineral districts in this county.

[29][30] Insole can be credited with much of the early success of South Wales steam coal in the London and international markets.

[16][19] The following accounts present Insole as a pioneering entrepreneur of South Wales steam coal, although each is unreliable in various details, especially regarding his origins and early years as a merchant in Cardiff.